The Bond Girl
by Fingirl
Summary: James Bond has a two and a half year old daughter. How will the agent manage with sudden parenthood?
1. Chapter 1

**A/N:** This is my first story, so please be gentle. Grammar is not my strength and English is not my first language, so feel to correct me.

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_**Chapter One – Gotta Be Ready**_

James Bond was doing something he never thought he'd do. He was shopping for children's car seats.

"This one lookes good." Eve Monneypenny pointed to a black Chicco's car seat priced at 199 pounds.

It was the best looking one in the store, but he was still reluctant to get a car seat for a toddler into his beloved Aston Martin. He sighed deeply. What had to be done, had to be done.

"Fine I'll take it." He paid for it and they left the store with him looking rather sinister. He had gotten himself into trouble big time.

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James hadn't been this nervous in a long time. He was sitting in M's office waiting for her to give him all the finalized papers. After that he would have a two year old daughter. He still couldn't believe it. He had only found out four days earlier about her.

M handed him a stack of papers. He eyed them over his eyes stopping at her name, Louella Bond. Her last name had been changed to his since her mother was dead and she was still small. He would probably never have known that she even existed if it weren't for her mother's death.

"Are you ready?" M interrupted his toughts.

"Yes." He nodded, getting up from his chair.

"See you in eight weeks Bond. Try to behave, for her sake."

He left her office to see the little girl sitting on the sofa with a social worker. Eve shifted her eyes briefly onto him before continuing her work.

"I wif you now?" She asked.

"Yes. You live with me now." He put his hand out for her to take, "Come on, let's go."

She took it and they left.

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Louella was the most beautiful two year old he had ever seen. The girl had blond, soft, slightly curly hair which bounced with each step she took. Her eyes were even bluer than his own with little silver flecks, appearing like a deep ocean, but with that innocent look of a child. Her cherub face only added to her cuteness.

James' life had changed so dramatically in four short days. On monday he had first found out about her and met her. On tuesday M had already fixed him up a new flat which was painted on wednesday. He had spent those two days mostly in shops, buying furniture and things for Louella. On Thursday Eve helped him at the flat. Each day he had spent an hour with his daughter and another one being coached into parenthood by a social worker. How he would ever manage, he didn't have a clue.

_You will learn with time, just like any other parent. Don't get worried if you're clumsy at first. You're a good man Mister Bond, I am sure you will be fine._ Those were the last words of the woman.

James Bond didn't have a lot of experience with children apart from his own childhood which he partially spent in an orphanage. Louella was cute, yes, but she was too old for anyone to adopt her. She would have either been tossed around foster homes, maybe even be abused or then she would have been put in an orphanage. But she was not an orphan and James would never willingly send his own child to one. The only option left was to take her.

They arrived at the house and he drove his Aston Martin into the driveway. James' loft had been changed into a townhouse with two big bedrooms and one small one.

He freed the little girl from her car seat and took her inside.

Louella inspected the dining room she was seated in carefully while James started making a snack for her. He set the small bowl down infront of her.

"Abble?"

"Yes, apple. Do you like apples?" James didn't know what foods, toys or books she liked, but apples seemed like a fairly save choice to him.

"Uh-huh." He watched her eat the chunks with her tiny hands. She even reached to give him one.

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At six James started to get her ready for bed. He poured at bath and went to fetch the girl from the living rom.

"Time for a bath kid." Louella grabbed hold of his hand. He had noticed that she was rather shy with him. She had quickly grasped the concept of what a father was and she had gotten really exited a few times. But now she was very quiet and seemed to get anxious whenever he left the room.

He took off her clothes and set her in the bathtub. She seemed to enjoy the small layer of foam that had formed from the bubble bath he had pored into the water and the few bath toys that floated around. James managed to get her hair washed pretty well without getting too wet himself. He lifted her out of the tub onto a towel on the floor, cocooning her in a second one.

After he carried her to her room he dried her and got her dressed in a light pink night gown. Brushing her teeth was a little trickier and he got toothpaste all over her cheeks and his hands. Finally he cleaned her face with a wash cloth and set put her down in her bed.

James pulle dthe covers to her chest. Her eyes were heavy with sleep, making her blink slowly. Her hair was still a little wet, sticking into little sections.

"Good Night Louella." He brushed a few locks off her face and planted a gentle kiss on her forehead.

James got back up to leave the room, but was stopped by her little voice.

"Daddy no go" Louella had tears building in her eyes.

He came back to her side and sat on the floor. "I'll stay until you fall asleep, okay? I'll be right in the nex room, okay?"

She nodded her head a little before closing her eyes.


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N:** Here's chapter two. Enjoy and please review.

RebaForever15 - I have read a lot of your stories and it means the world to me that you read, review and actually like the story. As far as M goes, I would never ditch her! She's the best and I love her. Just because she died in Skyfall doesn't mean she's dead for us. Besides Mallory sucks and I would never want to right anything about him... Hope you like the new chapter :)

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_**Chapter Two – Put Your Weapons Down**_

"Ugh" James woke up in the middle of the night to an unfamiliar sound. In only seconds he was up with a Walther in his hands. Someone was definitely in the house. James stepped inside the hallway to see a small whimpering form on the floor.

"Daddy?" A quiet voice echoed.

He flipped the light switch over to see his daughter crying on the floor.

"Louella." He quickly deposited his gun in his bedroom before rushing to the girl's side.

"I lost, I-I pee. Sowwy Daddy." Louella did in fact have a small pool of liquid on the floor between her feet. She hadn't stepped in it so James lifted her away from it walking her to the bathroom.

"Don't worry. It's okay." He slipped the nightie over her head and took off her panties. He showered her in the bathtub and then lifted her onto the floor, drying her with a towel. He dressed her in clean clothes before tucking her back in again. Louella clung to him tighlty.

"Daddy no go!"

"I have to clean up."

"No go." Her voice was weak and desperate.

He sighed taking her out of bed and proceeded in cleaning up her pee in the hall. Then he rinsed her dirty clothes and hung them up to dry. Louella stood faithfully by his side and still refused to go to bed.

"Louella, you have to sleep." He was getting desperate.

"No, you no go."

"Okay, you can sleep with me." He sighed deeply, "But only tonight. Tomorrow you sleep here."

"Kay."

They both climbed into bed and she fell asleep almost immediatly still holding onto him, moving closer to him until she was completly snuggled up against his side.

_This is weird_ he thought before drifting of to sleep.

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The next morning James woke up when he felt the cool air hit his side, due to the lack of heat from his small toddler.

"Daddy you wake?" She spoke softly, poking him in the cheek.

"Yeah."

"I potty." James got up and took her to the bathroom. They finished quickly and moved down stairs for breakfast. Louella munched happily on a bowl of cheerios, James eating toast and coffee. She managed to spill a minimal amount of milk on her night gown.

"Okay Louella, let's see what we have to do today." He had gotten a list of things that were to be included in her daily routine.

_-Meals (breakfast, lunch, dinner, two snacks)_

_-A nap (only occasioanally)_

_-Bedtime routine (include bath, brushing teeth, change of clothes and a bedtime story)_

_-Exercise outdoors_

_-Playing with parent(s) and/or friend(s)_

_-A moderate dose of television can be used for learning purposes_

_-Trip to place with peoples (groceriestores, busses) to learn social interaction_

_What on earth is a 'moderate dose of television' _he tought looking at the note.

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Thirty minutes later the two entered the park which was a few blocks from the house. It had a small garden like area with benches, a big green grass space with a few large oak trees and a large playground.

Louella had gotten anxious immediately upon enterring the park. She had an absolute death grip on her fathers hand. There were just too many people for her liking. But the playground seemed like heaven to her. She enjoyed parks really, but she had always gone with her mother and her mother was gone. She was terrified her father would do the same.

James noticed her becoming increasingly nervous. There were a lot of children on the playground, most of them in the giant sand box with there mothers chatting at the sidelines.

"Do you want to go there?" He pointed to the crouded sand box, only to earn a declining head shake from her. Next he pointed to the slide, which earned him exactly the same reaction.

Louella really didn't want to go on that giant monstrosity of a slide. She eyed all the instalations finally deciding on the swing. She rose her small hand to point toward it.

Once they reached the swings James lifted her in it, giving her a little boost and maintaining the rather low movement of the swing.

A woman soon came to the spot next to them, placing her own daughter into the swing next to them.

"You're daughter is very cute!" She had a too cheery voice for his liking, "How old is she?"

"Two and a half."

"My mary 28 months now. She is picking up on a lot of words right now. It really helps the children to interact. Does your daughter speak a lot?"

"She speaks when she has something to say." He was hoping the woman would shut up, but instead she started talking about all kinds of development stages, using _'my mary has/is'_ in every other sentence. James was really starting to be annoyed.

"Daddy out!" Louella wasn't happy with the woman either and wanted to get away, saving her father in the process. James picked heru p and they went to try out the slide. The park had a lot of obnoxious mothers who loved to bother the two of them and after a short while both were ready to go.

He would really have to find a way to avoid these people while managing to go outdoors with his daughter, he wasn't sure how long he would be ble to restrain himself from insulting any of them.

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**A/N 2: **As you may have noticed Louella has a little social anxiety mixed with abandonment issues, but part of it is just the same personality she shares with her father. Please leave a review the mean everything to me! Thanks for reading.


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N: **Here's chapter three. It's a little longer than the previous ones. The story has had 70 visitors and four followers, so closet readers I would be ecstatic to get some reviews! They really help me write. Also if you have any ideas of things you want in the story feel free to put those in too.

RebaForever15 - Thank you for your review!

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_**Chapter Three – Tuesday**_

James and Louella entered the Hamley's store on Regents Street three days later. He had only bought her two toys and a storybook before she arrived because he didn't have a clue about what she liked. Now she could choose herself. They wandered around in the shop with her scanning trough the toys with great curiosity.

"You can pick up anything you want." James had tried to coax her a few times already.

"Dat?" This time she pointed to box with colorful wood blocks. He nodded putting into his shopping basket. She proceeded to pick out _Lego Duplos _and James noticed she liked building when she picked a _pink rainbow stacker_ next. Louella also wanted some finger paint. Last but not least they went to the soft toy departement. She picked the _Cookie Bear_, which was a grey teddy with a green bow and a _Coconut Bear, _which was a natural white with a red bow.

"Is this all you want?" The girl nodded her head and they went to pay for the items. Unfortunately for them some child decided to have an extremly loud tantrum causing a few babies to burst out in tears and cause an untolerable amount of noise in the store.

"Daddy?" She tugged on the sleeve of his pants with a hint of worry in her voice. He looked down at her.

"Up?" she seemed scared by all the children crying and screaming right at her eye level. He picked her up into his free arm and she visibly calmed down. They finally made it to the register and left quickly after paying.

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After they had come home James had prepared an early lunch for them. He had a theory about the park being less full at lunch time, when all mothers would be busy feeding their kids.

As they entered the park his reasoning turned out to be right. It was almost empty. Louella ventured to go to the dreaded sand box which now has like a desert. After playing for a while she wanted to go on the swings.

"Momma, wing!" A small boy ran to the swings, startilng both James and Louella. His mother soon waddled over too. She had a large swollen pregnant belly.

"I'm sorry, but could you lift him into the swing?" The woman spoke to James who swung the boy up to th swing in a heartbeat.

"Thank you. I can't really lift him around." The woman gave him a thankful smile to which he simply nodded.

"Why did you come to the park at a time when it's likely to be empty if you need help with him?" James sked after a brief silence.

"To be honest," she grimaced a little "I don't like those obnoxious mothers gibbering all the time. They drive me mad. And it's a lot easier to keep an eye on Henry when there aren't a thousand kids running around."

"I know exactly what you mean. I came here for the first time yesterday and that was enough to not want to come back. And she doesn't lik big noidy crowds too much." He pointed to Louella who was now asking to get down.

"Do you want me to lift him down too?"

"That would be nice, thank you." James lifted Henry down too and both kids went to the sand box. James and the woman sat onto a bench nearby. They watched the children play on their own and then together.

"Daddy! Make Cake?" She scooted over to him, handing him a bucket and shovel. James followed her to the sand box and helped the kids make sand cakes and build a small sand castle.

"That is very pretty!" The woman exclaimed, "Henry I think we need to go home now."

"Kay Mommy." Henry grabbed his mothers hand and winked to Louella, "Bye Ella."

"Bye Henwy!" she waved to him.

James saw a few of the all too cheery moms approaching so he decided it was time for them to leave too. Louella seemed to grow increasingly tired. He had to carry her home a few blocks. James took of her coat and shoes, while Louella was becoming droswsy. He carried her upstairs and gently laid her on her tiny bed, covering her with a felt.

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Louella woke up from her nap two hours later just before four o'clock. Sh egot out of her bed walking trough the treshold out into the hall. Her father wasn't in the other bedroom so she walked to the gate at the top of the stairs.

"Daddy?" she called out.

James peeked his head into the hallway to see her at the top of the stairs, holding a bar in each of her fists as if she were a prisoner. She still had remnants of sleep in her eyes, blinking them slowly and looking slightly confused. She ate a bowl of bananas for a snack before James lifted her back to the floor.

She had ran of towards the living room. He had barely barley had time to turn around before he heard a loud bang. After the initial millisecond shock from colliding with the wall Louella started crying like a siren. James quickly rushed over to her picking heru p into his arm to inspect her head.

"It's ok, it's ok." He tried to soothe her while he brushed her hair from her forhead to inspect the damage. He couldn't see anything. James didn't have much of a clue what to do, but thankfully the little girl soon calmed down by herself.

He watched her play on the living room floor, amazed how she had had gone from crying like she was about to die to happily playing with her toys in only five minutes. If only adults would heal that fast.

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In the evening James bathed Louella. She stood on the bathroom floor where he rubbed her dry with a towel. He put the little hood over her had and wrapped the sides of the light pink Lexington baby towel around her. He lifted heru p brushing his fingers lightly over her forehead while carrying her to her own room.

"Does it still hurt?"

Louella shook her head no.

James got her dressed and brushed her hair a little. He had gotten a little bit better at brushing her teeth, but he still got toothpaste on his hands. Louella took her pacifier from the nightstand and climbed onto her bed. James tried to tuck her in, but she refused to even lie down.

"Daddy swit." The pacifier made her speach a bit slurry. She patted a spot on her bed. James did as he was told. Louella handed him the story book from her night stand before she climbed onto his lap. He felt a little awkward as the girl snuggled up against his chest latching her fists onto his shirt.

"Which story do you want?"

"Wumpelstiltin." He read trough the table of contents, figuring out she ment _Rumpelstilzkin._

He flipped open the correct page. "Once upon a time there was a miller's daughter…" He read the story and when he was at the part where the Queen finds out Rumpelstilzkin's name he felt her drift off to sleep, her breathing slowing and her hands relaxing. He finished the tale before laying her gently down under her covers.

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James poured himself a scotch, sighing deeply. He eased himself down onto the couch, put his hand onto the back rest and propped his feet up on the coffee table. He sipped the scotch, staring impassively out of the window into the dark. The only things loomination the sinister outdoors were the few street lanterns. It had started raining outside.

Just a few minutes later his phone started ringing. He leaned forward, snatching it from the coffee table, glancing at the caller ID.

"Eve?"

"Hey. How are you?"

"Fine."

"How have you coped so far?"

"Fine."

He was a rather passive person, especially on the phone. Eve was used to it, but she'd lie if she said she hadn't wished for an answer with more than one word.

"How have things been at the office?" James always enjoyed his weekends away from the job or the little vacations, but now was hardly a walk in the park for him.

"Mayham. M broke her leg on Sunday."

"What?" He definitely hadn't been expecting that.

"Yeah, she tripped on the stairs or something. She has a hast all the way up to her hip. She moves so clumsily and has to rest that she's staying home for two weeks until she gets a shorter cast. Mallory is wrecking havock here and Bill is jumping trough all kinds of hoops to keep him happy. M of course is working at home on her computer as much as she can. You know her, just can't quit."

A small smile appeared on his face. M did indeed never leave her job, she often would worry when she was home too. Needless to say she often worked on saturdays too. _Crime doesn't obey office hours._

"Just like her. I'll visit her someday, maybe she still has some of that good scotch left."

Eve chuckled at the other end of the phone.

"Since when do you call Tanner Bill?"

"W edo work together everyday you know."

"You used to before too."

"Yeah, well we're friends now."

"Friends, huh?"

"Oh shut up." Eve hung up the phone.

James took another sip of his scotch. He ran his tongue over his lower lip and it with his upper teeth. Yes, they should indeed pay M a visit.

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**A/N 2:** Hope you liked it and obviously next chapter they're going to visit M. Also I would like to know if you want to read about Monneypenny, Tanner and Q?


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N: **Okay I write my chapters way too quickly. I just finished the previous one this morning and now I already post this one! I bet you guys like it. Also my chapters seem to get longer :) Again I in-courage everybody to leave a review. How else would I know if and/or what you like and what you would like to be added or changed?

RebaForever15 - Was surprised to see a review so soon after posting. Thank you. And as far as M goes, I needed her to be away from work but not seriously injured (in the hospital) and I didn't think anything else but an actual physical restriction would do. I know myself how hard it is to move with a cast that covers your entire leg. Just had a hard time figuring out how she'd actually break it, since it's not even winter in my story...

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_**Chapter Four – Visiting The Boss**_

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The rain had changed to a storm through the evening. The thunder had been so loud it had woken Louella up. She sat upright in her bed and got out of it quickly when another lighting litu p the sky. She frantically sucke don her pacifier as she padded into the hallway. The soft light emanating from the other room told her that her father was still awake.

James ran his hair trough his slightly damp hair as he stepped into his bedroom. It was only ten and he was already exhausted. He was about to lie down when he noticed his daughter in standing in the door way, tugging on the hem of her nightie with a pacifier in her mouth and a teddy in her hand.

"Louella, Is something wrong?"

She pointed to the window where a lightining lit up the sky once more, thunder rumbeling only seconds later.

"Are you scared of the storm?"

She bobbed, looking him straight in the eye. "I sweep wif you?" her expression was heartbreaking so full of hope and at the same time fear of both the storm and rejection.

James nodded his head and she climbed onto the bed. He got in on the other side. The lied there facing each other, but Louella moved next to him when the next lightning struck. She curled into a fetal position with her back pressed into his chest, tightly holding onto her bear. She fell back asleep in no time. James ran his free hand over her hair a few times. It felt like silk and looked like a mixture of gold and platinum. It wasn't long before he was soundly sleeping aswell.

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James woke up the next morning with Louella still sleeping in his arms. She had turned over in her sleep and abandoned her teddy in the process. She snuffled, snuggling a little bit closer and sucked once on her pacifier. She was so innocent and sweet.

It wasn't long before she woke up. She looked slightly confused as to where she was, but her father was there and that was all that mattered. James could have sworn the sun was shining outside, but when he actually was able to move and get out of bed he had seen it was raining outside.

After breakfast they started to get ready to leave the house. He wasn't a person to particularly enjoy shopping, it was easy enough for him to just buy suits and the occasional casual clothes, but he had a great sense of fashion and he had picked out a great variety of clothes for the girl. It would probably be a little cooler outside due to the storm and rain, but he still chose a light pink polo t-shirt with a scalope edged collar and puff sleeves anlong with beige _Berlingot _trousers. For the first time since he had gotten her he tried to do something to her hair. James got it up into a ponytail pretty well. He himself was ready in no time, leavng them lots of time before they could even think about leaving. The last thing he wnated to do is piss M off by waking her up. Since it was only 7:30am he decided watching a movie would be the best way to kill some time since they couldn't go out in the rain. He had remembered to by her apropriate clothing for this kind of weather, but he'd completely forgotten about himself. Louella picked out _101 Dalmatians _ out of the small selection he had purchased.

They finished the movie slightly before nine and Louella seemed happy to play for the next hour. James wouldn't dare to show up at M's doorstep before ten. She was probably one of those early risers, but he would not push his luck. They finally left the house at ten. Louella had slept a lot less than usually and dozed of on the ride.

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M was bored to death just sitting in her living room, flicking trough TV channels. She had fallen asleep early the previous night, which had led to her also waking up early in the morning. Even with her leg in a cast she had managed to eat and get dressed and then she had worked for nearly three hours on her computer. And as rare as it was, she had simply ran out of work she could do.

Not doing anything wasn't what she usually did and she didn't really know how to occupy her time. What she did was go to work, work late, come home, drink a glass of wine or scotch and go to bed. SHe sighed deeply, witshing the television off. For a couple of minutes she just sat there staring at the wall.

The sound of the doorbell cut sharply through the silence almost making her jump in surprise. She got up from the couch, and hobbled to the hallway with her crutches. M opened the door and was surprised at the image in front of her.

James Bond was standing in the rain under an umbrella with a barely awake toddler who was leaning her head on his shoulder, suckling on a pacifier in his other arm.

"Bond."

"Can we come in?"

She backed out in to the hallway, letting them in. James closed the umbrella nd then the door. He set Louella on the down on the floor before turning to M.

"You actually managed to break your leg?" He smirked a little at the sheer possitbility that that could actually happen to her.

"Yes, I am not invincible you know. Why are you here?" M cast a quick glance to the girl who had latched one of her hands to her fathers leg.

"_We _came to visit you. Nothing much to do anyway since it's raining."

"There are clothes for that you know, if you forgot to buy them, then that's what you should be doing now. And you should have called me first."

"I didn't forget to buy them for her, I forgot to buy them for myself."

James unbuttoned Louella's red wool coat and helped her out of her little boots. He hung his and her coat on the coat rack and set the girl's pacifier on the small table by the wall.

M sat on one of the wo arm chirs in her living room while James took a seat on the sofa. Louella had climbed onto his lap and had a death grip on his arm. James and M both noticed how nervos the girl had gotten.

"Is everything alright?" M directed the question at both of them and got no answer at all.

"Louella," James spoke to her waiting for her to look at him, "we're only visiting.". She relaxed immediately, letting go of him.

"So how have things been with her?" M had wondered about it ever since he had left on friday afternoon. James Bond wasn't the nice chitchat kind of guy, who got a long with people or had relationships let alone ever interacted with children or took care of them. He was a killing machine, her best agent, a womanizer and a sexist. But he was a good man and M wouldn't have let him stay alone with the child if he couldn't manage.

"It's been alright. It's new and different, but I haven't had any major problems."

Louella had moved over on to the right side of the couch from where she reached out to poke M's cast.

"What is dis?" She looked up, first to M and then to James.

"It's a cast, dear." M replied.

Louella still looked confused. "What dem cast do?" she asked with her eyebrows knit together.

"It's like a big bandade, only bigger and hard. You use it on broken legs and arms."

"Dem broke?" She pointed to her leg.

"Yes, it is." M said nodding her head. The girl nodded in understanding.

"How did you manage to break it anyway?" James asked curiously.

"I was in a hurry and tripped on the stairs."

"Dem dangeos." Louella said to everyone's surprise. She had listened intenty and understood most of the conversation.

"What?" James and and M asked in unision.

"Staiws dangeos. Dat why daddy has dem gates. Wight?" She turned to him.

"Yeah."

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M was in the kitchen making some tea and setting up a snack. Louella would probably get hungry soon. She guessed the girl would prefer juice and she did actually have some. The only problem was it was on the top shelf in her cupboard.

"Bond, could you give me a hand?" She called out. James left Louella in the living room and went to see what M needed.

"What do need?"

"There's some juice on the top shelf and I obviously can't reach it." she said pointing towards one of the cupboards. James thought it was rather funny that M was so short, especially since she managed to intimidate so many people.

"Here you go." He handed her the juice.

Suddenly they heard a loud thump.

"Shit." James rushed to the living room with M hobbeling after him. Louella was on the floor in tears, looking thoroughly upset. He perched down on the floor just as she began sobbing.

"Hey, what happened? Did you fall on the floor?" He put his hands to her sides.

Louella nodded.

"Did you hit your head?" Nod.

"On the table?" He ran his fingers over the edge. She shook her head no.

"On the floor?" Again she nodded. There was a small bumb forming on her head.

"Don't worry, she'll be fine. She will just have a bump." M said, inspecting Louella's forehead too.

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All three of them sat at the kitchen table. Louella was sitting on James' lap. He wouldn't risk her falling off a chair. She was sipping juice from her cup. M saw that something was bothering James.

"You shouldn't beat yourself up about it." M simply stated while stirring her tea.

"I've had her for six days and she's already managed to run into a wall and fall face first off a couch. I should absolutely not beat myself up about not looking after her.

"Look," She shifted her gaze onto him, "she is a toddler and you are new parent. She' a child and children get hurt no matter what. You'll have to take her to the ER plenty of times still. It will be the middle of the night, you'll be exhausted after a mission trying to keep her from misery while not killing everyone in the damn waiting room. She's a child and things happen. Ok?"

"Ok."

"And don't worry. You'll learn."

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Thirty minutes later M watch his Aston Martin drive off.

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**A/N 2: **I will probabaly get to everyone at the office in the next chapter. Since I haven't planned anything for James and Louella yet and real life is going to get serious I might take a moment with the new chapter. Tomorrow is my last day of summer vacation and I have a ton of things to do, so I won't have time to write and obviously the next day school starts. I'm going to a whole new school and don't know anyone, so wish me luck. Let's hope it all goes well and I'll have the time and energy to write. Reviews definitely help.


	5. Chapter 5

_**A/N:** Hello again! I've decided to bring in Eve and Tanner in this chapter and Q will follow in the next one. I am going to need some help for the next chapter, which means I new your review! Six favorites and nine followers and yet I only get review from two people? Does not sound fair. I (at least hope so) write for your pleasure so give me some reviews, please. Their like drugs and speed everything up._

_RebaForever15 - Glad you like it. I really like M and wanted her in the story and let's just say suffering from insomnia gives me a lot of ideas like that.__  
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_mollyweasleyforever - Thank you for your review! It's what actually got me to right this new chapter today. Bond is known as the cold blooded killer and womanizer and I figured that at least one of his lady adventures would have to end up like this... Your in luck because M is one of my favorites. She definitely going to be here and I'll try to work her in as best as I can, but the very main focus is of course on James and Louella._

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_**Chapter Five – The Office**_

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Eve strolled into her office and set her bag on her desk before taking her coat off and hung it up. The door to M's office was open, with Bill Tanner sitting behind the desk attempiting to manage the piles of paperwork.

"Good morning Bill." She said stepping inside, "would you fancy some coffee?"

"Yes please." he mumbled, shuffling some papers around the desk. Eve felt bad seing him so stressed out. He was working hard and with Mallory breathing down his neck it was a nerve racking job. How M handled it anyway, she had no idea.

"Here you go." She set the coffee on the corner of the table and left.

#####

"Q?" Eve popped her head into his office where the young man sat behind his laptop, feverishly typing.

"Yes?" He shifted his gaze onto her and pushed his glasses up on the bridge of his nose.

"I came over to drop these off." She waved a bunch of papers in her hands, handing them over to him.

"Ah, yes thank you." He turned his focus back onto the laptop, not noticing she continued to stand there instead of leaving.

"And I was wondering if you could help me out with something." Eve said after a moment.

"With what?"

"Well, you know how M's been away and Mallory is really bothering Bill-"

"Tanner?" Q had not worked at MI6 for a long time and he didn't socialize too much, so he wasn't too sure of everyone's names.

"Yes, Tanner." Eve said a bit emarassed. "So I was wondering if you could come up with something that would distract Mallory."

"Exuse me?"

"I'm sorry, It's a stupid idea. Forget I even asked. I'm sure Bi-… Tanner can mange until M's back." Eve was about to leave when Q interrupted her.

"No, I'll come up with something. But I need at least until the end of this week to make it work. Otherwise we might get busted." He said with a lopsided smile apearing on his face.

"Thanks Q. If you need any help with anything, call me." And with those words she left the room.

#####

Bill was extremely bored, sitting in a conference room with Mallory and a bunch of other cocky bosses. He hated to sit there either being attacked and having to defend himself or them being bored to death by their excessively long speeches concerning absolutely nothing of importance.

He liked the latter one better though, because when he wasn't being crusified he could think of other stuff going on in his life. He had grown increasingly close with Eve Monneypenny, but they had not yet crossed any lines. He liked her. She was easy to talk to and they often enjoyed a drink together. But what was it he felt for her?He wasn't sure. It would be inapropriate, an office romance, and he wasn't even sure it's what he wanted. But there was definitely something there.

"I think we should discuss this further tomorrow." Mallory announced.

_Noooooooooooooo! _

"And Tanner if you could bring those documents then too." Mallory spoke.

_Oh god why? I haven't even started working on them._

"Of course I will." Tanner nodded and everyone said their goodbyes before leaving.

He was going to have a long night ahead of him.

#####

Eve watched Bill walk through her office looking completely ground beaten. Meetings were never easy, if they could ruin M's mood completely they could probably make nearly any man cry.

"What's wrong?" She asked, bringing him another cup of coffee along with a sandwich.

"Nothing."

"Bill?" She said in a threatening voice with her hand on her hip and a 'give me no bullshit'-look.

"Remember those documents Mallory told me to work through?" He asked.

She furrowed her brow, "The ones about improving the surveillance in all major public transports and use facial recognition to spot criminals on the run?"

"Yes, those. Well I have to have everything ready tomorrow and I haven't even started yet." He sighed deeply.

"Oh no." She bit her lower lip, "Allright, we can do this. I'll help you and maybe we'll even be able to get a few hours of sleep."

"No, I couldn't possibly let you Eve. I brought this on myself."

"I will help, wether you want it or not. What time is the meeting?"

"Nine am." He said blushing.

"I think we have to cancel on the sleep." She flashed a smile before heading back to her desk.

"Thanks Eve!" He shouted after her.

"No problem." She whispered to herself, smiling widely.

#####

Monneypenny was sitting at Bill Tanners dining table reading trough one of the documents. She peeked at the clock which told her it was a little after midnight. She heard Bill yawn from his spot on the other side of the table. He rubbed his eyes and blinked rapidly.

"Ugh! Why does Mallory have to be such a bully?" He asked with a rough, tired voice.

"I really don't know." Eve put the papers down to her lap, "You just need to put up with him for three more days.". Even though it was already Thursday Eve and Bill both knew he'd have to work on Saturday too.

"What do you mean?" he asked confused.

"Well, don't get mad, but I asked Q to come up with something to distract Mallory." She looked ashamed and darted her eyes to the floor.

"What?"

"I'm sorry. It's just that he's been breathing down your neck and I thought it was better for everybody if he was distracted for a while." She lifted her eyes to meet his " It's not good for you to be so stressed and skip on sleep." she said softly.

"Thank you." It was the first and only thing that popped in his mind. Did she really care enough for him to go prank one of the big guys? He was flabbergasted.

"Um, you're welcome?" she laughed at the fact of not knowing how to respond to something so simple, "Q said it'll take him 'till the end of the week. So you'll have to try not to strangle Mallory or burst into tears until then."

"I'll try to remember that." He said chuckling lightly.

#####

An hour later they were drinking the strongest coffee either of them had ever tasted. They were pacing the room, sipping from their cups every once in a while.

"Hey Eve?"

"What?"

"Thank you." he stopped to look at her, "for everything.".

"I'm happy I could help." She smiled at him.

"Would you like to go out for dinner on Sunday?"

"I'd love to."

#####

**A/N 2: **Now it's time for you to help me! First thing I need help with is the Q/Mallory situation. It could take me days to figure something out so help me out with ideas for a sweet little prank. Note that no one (except Mallory of course, but only a little) is to be harmed. Then number two would be choosing a nickname for Louella. I have thought of Lou, Elle and Ella. Let me now if you like any of those or suggest something else. Thanks for reading!


	6. Chapter 6

**A/N: **Okay, so here's the new chapter. It's not going anywhere serious until I figure out how to prank Mallory and so far I got nothing, so help me out here! I hope you still like this chapter. I'll be getting down to Bond/Louella action when I finish this prank part, so if someones dying for that it will come faster with your help. If brought Q into this chapter and I like to use Emma as M's name instead of what it really is (Olivia Mansfield). Also I am sad that I get only one or two reviews per chapter since there are more followers. Please guys!

RebaForever15 - Thank you for your review! I agree with that and you will hear more of them hopefully soon.

mollyweasleyforever - Thanks. Lou was what came to my mind first too, so I'll probably use that and maybe make something up still.

#####

_**Chapter Six – Getting Help**_

_**#####**_

Q opened the door to his apartment totally exhausted. He had worked on a new invention and then tried to figure out something to help Tanner, but so far it wasn't going well. He sighed taking of his shoes, muddling his soaked locks. The rain was pouring from the skies like it often did this time of the year and unfortunately for Q he had broken his umbrella that morning, leaving him to be drenched in the rain.

"Hello there Gentleman." He greated his cat that had come to sit a few feet away from him. He took off all his clothes except his underwear, leaving them in a heap next to the door mat. He turned on the electric kettle before taking a hot shower.

Q poured the steaming water into his cup, dangeling a camomille tea bag in the liquid. He left it to brew for a minut to check on his other cat. He found the huge furry lump sleeping soundly on his bed. He strocked her head slightly, which caused the cat to stirr and lift her head to check who was petting her before she fell back asleep.

The young man threw the tea bag into the garbage can and moved to the living room to enjoy his tea. Gentleman climbed onto him when he sat down on the couch, sliding his head along Q's cheek.

"Have you really been this lonely?" Q stroked the cat that was purring loudly, "Chewbacca doesn't keep you a lot of company, does she?"

Q had found Gentleman four years ago at an animal shelter. He was looking hor a cat and was not dissapointed when he found a little white and dark grey kitten with a grey head that had a white mustache pattern on the cats upper lip. Since Q had started working at MI6 he noticed Gentleman becoming depressed so he decided to get a second cat for the first ones company. Chewbacca was a darkbrown Norwegian forest cat. She had gotten her name from the _Star Wars Wookie _despite being female unlike her namesake. Chewbacca however could not keep up with the rather playful and owerwhelming need for affection, but it was enough for Q's absence.

He realized in that moment that if they ever wanted to trick Mallory they'd need some help. He got his phone with Gentleman in his arms, dialing the number of the agent that never returned his equipment.

"This be bloody important!" James hissed into the receiver.

"Bond, this is the Quartermaster."

"Is there a problem?"

"I need your help with something, but it can wait until tomorrow."

"No, hang on a minute."

Q listened as the other end rustled for a moment before he could hear a distant voice.

"Everything's alright Louella, it was only a bad dream. Go back to bed, I'll be there in a minute."

He waited for Bond to pick up the receiver.

"Alright, what do you need?"

"Well, see since M broke her leg Mallory's been making Tanners and Monneypenny's lives a livng hell. Tanner seems to be quite stressed out and so Eve-"

"Hang on." James pressed out quickly.

Q listened intently to what the agent would say. There was no doubt he was talking to his daughter and James Bond wasn't someone you would imagine to interact let alone take care of a child.

"Did it fall under the bed?" After a short while Bond was back on the line.

"Continue." Q heared a whooshing sound in the background, like a faucet had been turned on.

"So Eve asked me to help out. I haven't got anything yet and it all needs to be set up on monday. I figured you might be able to help."

"Does M know about this?" He asked suspiciously.

"No."

"Well I'll help you if she gets involved in the planning too. She's dying of boredom in her house and if she won't agree to doing it, then I'm afraid I can't help you either."

"I suppose you want _me_ to call her?" Q said wryly.

"Obviously." Bond stated.

"Send me a text about wether she agrees or not. If she does tell her I'll pick her up at three thirty. I suppose you can be home by four?"

"I suppose so." Q could really get off pretty much whenever since he worked so many extra hours lately.

"Alright then. I'll also need your address."

"I'll send them if M agrees."

"Bye." With that one last word the agent had hung up the phone, leaving Q to call M.

#####

"Louella?" James carefully stepped into his daughter's bedroom. She was sitting on the carpet playing with a shape sorting cube. He handed her the pacifier that he had washe dafter it had fallen under her bed.

"You're supposed to be in bed." He said stroking her head softly. She wrapped her arms around his neck, resting her head on his shoulder.

"I no wan."

"You need to sleep. We'll go somewhere tomorrow and you need the energy." He pulled her little blanket back and set her on the bed before tucking her in. "I know you had a bad dream, but that's not real, alright?" He brushed Louella's hair from her forehead and planted a kiss on it.

"Good night, sweetie." He felt really weird saying that, but it sounded right.

"Nigh nigh daddy." She was nearly asleep by the time James had left the room.

He checked his phone and found a new message.

_M's in. See you tomorrow 4pm._

_-Q_

He put his phone away and slipped under the covers.

_She must be desperate if she starts pranking people in the office._

_#####_

James drove up in front of M's home at three twenty. He could sees he was moving inside her house, probably gathering her things.

"Daddy, whewe we go?"

"We are picking up Emma." Louella crumpled up her face with a look of total focus in her eyes as she tried to remember who this 'Emma' person was.

James was watching her from the rearview mirror when he noticed movement from the corner of his eye. M had opened the door and was hobbling out. He quickly got out of the car, walking over the side walk and up the porch.

"Your probably the first woman I've met who's actually on time." He said jokingly.

She merely snorted and started moving towars the few stairs separating her from the sidewalk.

"What are you doing?" James asked.

"Going to your car."

"Allright." He picked her up in one swift motion, causing her to get angry.

"What the hell are you doing?"

"Getting you down the stairs." He stated setting her back down. "You would've only broken your neck if you attempted to climb them down with that monstrossity." he said pointing to her cast, "And that would mean we'd have to kill Mallory to get rid of him."

"Well don't ever do it again!" M hissed, moving towards the Aston Martin.

"I'm afraid that I will have to." He almost chuckled at the death glare she shot him, "That is if you plan on getting home tonight."

M slipped into the passenger seat, hnading him her crooks. James stored them in the trunk before getting into the car himself.

"Hi Louella." M said turning to the back seat to greet the girl.

"Hello Emma." she replied happy to finally have figured out who it was her father ment and being able to greet the woman.

"Emma?" M cocked one eyebrow, looking at James.

"She has to practice her speech." He said shrugging.

#####

They arrived on Old Street in Shoreditch half an hour later, parking in the parking lot of the warehouse. , being the modern techie he is, of course lived in a converted industrial space. James got out of the car, getting M her crooks before taking Louella out of the car. M sat sideways on her seat with the door open, ready to get up when Q'd arrive. Louella, who was full of energy after napping and then sitting in the car for a long time, decided exploring the courtyard by running around was a good idea.

M was amused watching the father-daughter pair. Louella sprinted around with her curls bouncing while James was trying to stay as close to her as he could without running after her. Autumn had really started showing, dying the leaves on the trees from a vibrant green to yellow and orange that looked like gold in the sunshine. To the great delight of the little girl there were quite a lot leaves on the ground already. James swept his daughter up when he saw a car driving towards the parking lot.

Q parked his blur Audi A1 Sportback in his parking spot and walked over to them. M had manged to get up and out of the car, standing behind it on her crooks. James and M looke drather different from their usual appearance, with M having one rolled up sleeve on her pants, a huge white cast and two crooks and James having a little toddler in his arms.

Louella on the other hand was fascinated by the strange man's curly hair.

"Hi guys!" He waved while walking over to them, "Eve should be here in a minute, she left a few minutes after me."

Q cast a glance at the little girl. Her hair was blonde, but not the dark, rugged colour James had, but a bright, golden shade. The icy blue colour in her eyes was an exact match to his, but the silver flecks must originate from her mother.

Louella reached out her hands placing them on his head, fideling with his hair. M chuckled at the motion and Q's startled expression.

"Dem nice haiw." The girl said smiling broadly.

"Thanks, I guess." In that moment another car drove into the parking lot parking next to them.

"Made a new friend Q?" Eve herself was just as curious about the great 007's daughter as anyone in the office, including the Quartermaster.

"Pwetty!" Louella sqeeled pointing to Eve's fluffy bunch of curls.

"I guess she just loves the curl." Q stated to a confused Eve.

"Could we start this meeting before nightfall?" M asked.

#####

**A/N 2:** I hope you liked it. Please leave a review on your way out. Oh, and just for your info Q's cat's look like this:

. ?fbid=628888237121916&set=pb.501922379818503.-2207520000.1376505911.&type=3&theater

.

I'm kinda sorry that nothing really happened, but it is partially due to the lack of reviews. I didn't have any source of inspiration or idea...


	7. Chapter 7

**A/N: **Okay folks, I promised a new chapter this week and here it is. Fresh at 7am in the morning. To way2cool4uxx and everyone in general I'm sorry to have offended you, I did have a plot ready, but then I realized it would be somehow realistic and might get someone fired, so maybe not. I got desperate because I have suffered from some pretty bad insomnia for the past year or so and I have found that after completely powering out I need to unwind somehow and that's what writing is for me. So if I can't write, I can't sleep , then I can't learn or think and then I can't write again and we have a pretty vicious cycle. Despeite having a crazy busy weekend I took time to really sit down on saturday, after a somewhat alright slept night and managed to come up with a few ideas. I apologize for offending you. Also I'll let everybody know I'm almost halfway with the new chapter, so it can be expected to be put up either today or tomorrow. That one was almost purely fueled with not being able to sleep. Oh and sorry for the long note.

RebaForever15 - Yeah I kinda had the feeling your heart especially would skip a beat. I have had a full leg cast myself once and I can assure you that stairs are the worst possible enemy.

mollyweasleyforever - I think you'll be pleased to hear that from the few ideas I managed to come up with I did indeed pick a goose chase :) I hope you get this chapter before you leave and I wish you a nice trip.

way2cool4uxx - Again, sorry. Thanks for your long review and I do write for myself. I love writing it is so relaxing and I love to know that I put something out there which I wish existed, so that the next time a pour lost little soul like me goes looking for a story they'll find one.

Sunday -I thought about involving James too, but he doesn't really have spare time, since he has to stick with Louella. I don't think she would be too happy of being left alone with someone else. He is minorly involved tough. As for the review thing, there's some new policy that you can't put up more than one review per chapter, so that might have been the problem. Haven't any dates planned for the near future, but maybe some time. Thanks for the idea.

#####

_**Chapter Seven – Planing it all**_

_**#####**_

Q's apartment was a bright space due to a window the size of his entire wall. There was a small hall leading straight into the living room that was openly conected with the kitchen/ dining area on one side and an office space on the other side. The only things that were behind closed doors were his bedroom and bath. James didn't personally like it two much, but at least it was easy for him to keep an eye on Louella.

Louella didn't pay too much attention to the apartment as soon as she realized there was a cat in the house. Gentleman had come to greet the herd that had entered his kingdom and he was just as enchanted by Louella as she was of him. The cat had never in it's entire lifetime seen such a tiny human being.

Everyone hung their coats up and proceded in taking a seat in the living room. Before they could even start Eve's phone began ringing. She glanced at the caller ID, pressing the green button.

"Tanner, is something wrong?" she had talked to him before leaving and was sure he'd have no reason to call her unless this was the case. SHe listened intently to his words.

"What?" she yelped, catching everybody's attention.

"I'll give the phone to Q." she handed him the receiver before turning to M and James.

"There's a security breach going on and some other stuff. It might take a while" she tried to give a quick summary of the situation to them. Meanwhile Q had whipped out his laptop and computer and was frantically typing and clicking with his mouse.

"Okay, well we'll go out. Call me when your done." He got of the couch and scoope dup Louella. "Are you coming?" he asked M.

She was reluctant to go, but nodded nevertheless. Her office was in a crisis and there was nothing she could do since Tanner was in charge.

####

James and M sat side by side on a bench in the courtyard watching Louella. She was happily wandering around, exploring trees, leavesand flowers, even stopping just to touch grass.

M remembered the times when she was young, taking her kids outside to play. She had always wanted a daughter, but she had only had three boys. Her oldest grandchild had been a girl, but she lived in the United States along with her oldest son and his wife.

"Daddy!"

James got up to see what the girl wanted from him. She pointed to the tree above her, particularly to a bright red leaf. He swung heru p in the air, making her giggle. She loved being alomst at the level of the branches surrounded by shimmering colourful leaves and the sun. She ripped of the red leaf and wa ssoon safely on the ground. SHe looked at it for a while before scooting over to M handing it to her.

"Emma." Louella didn't know how to tell her it was for her so she simply said her name and reached out her hand with the leaf in it.

"For me?" she took the beautiful leaf, smiling at Louella, "Thank you, dear."

She ran off again.

#

An hour and a half later they were all gathered around the kitchen table with a cup of tea in front of each of them.

"Okay, so do you guys have a plan?" James asked the first and most important question.

"Well, no. Not really. We thought of sending him on a complete goose hunt, but one that would not involve MI6." Q said.

"You mean something personal?"

"Yes."

"He has a twin sister." M stated, "She's been a lot of trouble and Mallory checked her into rehab seven years ago. The last I know of her is that she lives in Paris."

"Do you know her name?" Q asked as he went to retrieve his laptop."

"Gabriela Mallory."

Q began his tech work once again.

"Yes, indeed. She was in Addictions Detox & Rehab Centre in Bedfordshire for six months. She moved to Paris and now lives in Argentina. Looks like she's still using to some extent."

"I'm sure he'd go looking for her if she was in trouble." Eve said, "They don't have any contact now do they?"

"No, not according to their phone records. There are some files from her rehab with her handwriting. I could create a letter with them."

While Q was working once again a drowsy Louella came over to tug on her father's shirt.

"Daddy, up." He lifted her onto his lap where she curled up against his chest, leaning her head against him.

The printer in the office started rattling, printing out a letter. Q fetched it and brought it back to show everyone. They agreed that Eve would get Mallory into the office the next day, so that James could get the letter into Mallory's mailbox, along with the one that actually came by post. Q would make the actual letter in his lab on the next morning, creating the writing with a ballpoint pen and making sure the envelope had the correct stamps and labels on it.

When they were finally done it was already six thirty and Louella was nearly asleep. They said their goodbyes, M, James and Louella leaving in one car and Eve in the other. Louella was quickly fast asleep. He dropped M off and much to her agony carried her to her front door before going home and putting his daughter to bed.

_Today has really been a weird day. _He thought before falling asleep.


	8. Chapter 8

_**A/N:** New day, new chapter. It's a little short, but it fits best like this. I am __really happy about all the reviews, it really pushed me to write yesterday. I'll try to put up a new chapter on wednesday or Thursday (maybe Friday), for I am really busy today. Enjoy!__  
_

_RebaForever15 - Yes, Mallory does have a sister, but I don't think you will hear too much from it, since I don't like writing about him that much. M might not have any other choice but to become close to Louella, especially if Bond won't stop turning up at her house like he has in the past, but we'll see._

_Marybridget snape - Glad that you found it and liked it. I don't know wether your a James/M fangirl or not, but no James and M are NOT going to hook up. Sorry, I've read some of that, but I myself won't right it and James is currently preoccupied._

_JFJD - Glad you like the main structure of the story, which would be Bond and Louella. I'm sorry she won't be much in this chapter, but she's in the next one and James will experience something new. And then we'll be back with them and their little life for a while. Sorry for the typos, some of them are completely the evil of my computer. It spell checks everything in Finnish and might just pick up a letter or two from a word and shift it to the next or previous one. I try to avoid them._

_Clara-Lis - Thank you! I think that everyone is curious (at MI6) to know this legendary, but mercenary detached agent's daughter, soething that shows a completely different side of him. For the love interest, I'm not sure yet, but at least not in the near future._

_##### _

_**Chapter Eight – Tricking Mallory**_

Q looked at the piece of paper in his hands. It was slightly yellow and crumpled, making it look as if it had just hastily been grabed from somewhere. The lab had a special machine to recreate a certain handwriting and with it he ha dcreated a letter that looked handwritten. He even managed to smear some of the ink from the ballpoint pen, making it look even more authentic. The envelope was a different shade, but also yellowish and ther was a stamp ready and labeled to look as if it had been sent from the main post office in Paris.

Now all he had to do is make Gabriela Mallory's tracks end in Paris and make them slightly blurry. Mallory wasn't a genius with computers, but he had some skills and it was Q's duty to make sure he would not find his sister.

"Letter's ready." He sent the text out to Eve, M, James and Tanner.

Within five minutes Eve arrived downstairs to pick it up and bring it to a coffee shop where James was waiting. He took the letter that was in a closed zip bag and stashed it in his coat's nside pocket. He sat around, enjoying a tea and pastery with Louella. Eve called Bill Tanner on her way back to the office.

Tanner's involvement was to get Mallory to the office where he and Eve would keep him busy for a few hours. Forty-five minutes after Tanner's phone call Mallory arrived, completely oblivious to the real reason he was there.

Upon receiving a text from Eve that Mallory had arrived, James and Louella drove to his flat and dropped the letter off. All there was to be done now was wait.

#####

Gareth Malory arrived at home at four in the afternoon. He was not happy to have been called in on a Saturday, but nowadays it wasn't as irritating as it used to be. He dropped the mail on the coffee table without even looking at the letters. His eyes roamed over the photos on his fireplace.

His two children were old enough to live on their own, Lily already working and Jackson studying at Eton. He was going to be an adult in less then a year. His wife, or now ex-wife had gotten fed up with his job and he had not stopped her from leaving. Now he was all on his own. To make it worse, people at the office were incredibly loyal to M and disliked him quite a lot.

Mallory sighed, sinking down onto the couch. He loosened his tie and looked at the bunch of letters. He picked them up and fanned through them, stopping at the one that looked odd. He inspected the envelope first. It was sent from Paris. He tore it open carefully taking the paper out and unfolding it.

Gary,

I need your help. Am in trouble.

~Gaby

He recognized his sister's handwriting. She had been out of his life for years now. After rehab she'd moved to France and that was all he knew. Mallory wasn't too fond of her, but they'd shared a womb and a childhood, a home, parents, toys, their whole life as minors. She had just gone in the wrong direction and it had been his task to rescue her, many more times then he liked to count. He was just going to do it again. If M could be away for two weeks, he'd surely be okay with a weeks leave.

#####

"He's taken leave, one week." Tanners group message made everyone's phones buzz.

"Flight to Paris tonight 10pm." Q's message was next.

M looked at her phone. Te fact that Mallory was a pain in the arse wasn't surprising, but the fact that so many people would go out of their way and sacrifice half their weekends to get rid of him was slightly intimidating. She was glad people didn't hate her that much.

She often went all 'Evil Queen of Numbers', the job required a lot and it was the only way to get there. It left her wondering if people talked about her behind her back, if they'd call her a bitch. Even though M was tough, she wasn't heartless. She cared about people, but she didn't have the room to show that. She was after all the head of MI6.

That lead her to think of how she could make everybody obey her, as if they were little dogs. Well, almost anyone. James Bond was not like that, he'd never been. At a younger age he'd at least had some curtesy, but that had changed with time. He had drunk her scotch countless times, broken into her house. It often made her furious, but she always let it slip anyway. He was reliable and did his job well. To think that the man even she couldn't keep in check had his world now run by a two year old. It was downright ironic.

#####

At a quarter to ten Mallory stepped into the plane he was flying to Paris with. He could not remember being this nervous in a while. His sister had the tendency to get into trouble big time. The last time he'd helped her out, a bullet had grazed his arm. He remembered vividly how he'd been in the ER, having the wound bandaged, when the thought hit him that if he'd been a foot to his left he'd be dead.

He sat down on his seat, the cool calm leather on the business class seat calming him immensely. None of his feelings were of course to be seen. His poker face had become perfect over the years. That was exactly what had driven his wife mad when they'd fought.

_Give me some sort of reaction Gary! I'm sick and tired of having to guess how you feel or when you'll be home!_

Once ha had snapped, yelling back at her. Sometimes he even missed fighting with her. It was better than the lonely silence he was cocooned in at home nowadays.

_**#####**_

_**A/N:** Thanks for reading. Please leave a review._


	9. Chapter 9

_**A/N:** __Here's the brand new chapter, freshly written just last night. Can't believe I wrote a two thousand word chapter in one night! Longest chapter so far. Thank you for all the reviews. I'm starting to feel like I'm updating too quickly? I'll be occupied with school and friends and cleaning up, but I'll still have plenty of time to write. And we have now broken the 1'000 visit mark :D Thanks to everybody! _

RebaForever15 - Stay strong! One must not sympathize with the evil Mallory! I think you'll be surprised by just how much Louella runs his life, she can be a handful.

Tinkernat - Thank you and you are right, it sometimes does feel like technology is conspiring against us.

mollyweasleyforever - I feel honored that you want to read my story even on your vacation. The leaf bit in chap 7 came to me one night in bed when I was struggling to sleep. And I think you'll be pleased for this short wait too. Enjoy your vacation!

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_**Chapter Nine – New Territory**_

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James was woken abruptly on Sunday morning, by a tiny hand slamming into his face. He snapped his eyes open to see Louella standing next to his bed. He cast a brief glance at the clock, which revealed it was only six o'clock and groaned. Louella jabbed her finger into his cheek.

"Addy up!" Her speech was made slurry and even more incoherent by her pacifier. James got up, realizing she was just in the same mood she'd been all night.

Louella had adamantly persisted on sleeping in his bed the night before. James wouldn't have minded, but if he allowed her to start sleeping there without a reason, she'd soon not be able to be without it. She had gotten rather angry about it and he had to drag the screaming, but obviously tired toddler back to her bed several times over a span of two hours. When she had finally fallen asleep he had thought the exhaustion would make her sleep long, but it apparently did not.

James sat down, with a sandwich and a cup of coffee in fornt of him, handing Louella a bowl of cheerios. She ate messily today, sticking her hands in to the bowl, wiping them on her shirt once in a while. He sat there silently eating his meal and when Louella didn't get any kind of reaction from him she shoved the bowl over the edge of the table, sending it onto the floor.

He looked at the paddle of milk, with puffy rings in it, the bowl in the middle of it all. He sighed deeply, deciding that irritating her was not a good option. So James, ever so submissively cleaned up the mess and sliced up half a banana, her favourite fruit, to compensate for the meal she'd thrown away. Louella, never saying no to the sweet fruit, ate a few pieces before she grabbed the bowl and trew it over the entire table before it crashed to the floor.

"Louella!" James was not in the mood for games. If she would throw food around like this, them she would not eat anymore. He set her on the floor before picking up the leftover pieces from the floor. She let him eat hs breakfast in peace, but they both new this truce wasn't going to last very long.

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After having sat at the breakfast table for almost half an hour, James decided it was time to bathe his bilious daughter. He found her in the living room, playing on the floor. He considered postponing her bath, who knew how long she would be quiet and nice today? But the choice was taken out of his hands when she noticed he was there.

"Okay, time for a bath Louella."

"No." She had gotten to her feet, looking him straight in the eye, challenging him.

"Yes." He picked her up, holding her against his body with both hands, even though his shirt was getting stained with the milk from her clothes. Louella tried to wriggle free unsuccessfully and was finally set down on the floor. She would have run away, but James had been smart enough to close the bathroom door.

He opented the tabs, letting the tub fill up with warm water and poured in some bubble bath, hoping it would make her less opposing on getting bathed. But Louella wasn't fooled that easily and did her best to get him as wet as possible. She splashed water out of the tub, suddenly dunked his entire arm into the water or wiped foam on his head.

When they were finally done, she was clean and he looked like a dirty, drenched old dog. Louella was let out of the bath, so that he could shower. When he came out he found her in his bed with a bunch of toys she had dragged there. She'd freed herself from the small bathrobe, which was discarded on the floor and had effectively made parts of his sheets wet with her hair.

After some time they were both dressed and her toys back in their rightful place. James had started to wonder what on earth could have pissed Louella off so badly. For an hour he had to listen to the rather unpleasantly loud sounds she made by building towers out of the wooden blocks and then nudge it, sending all the blocks to clash with the hardwood floor.

By lunchtime she was hungry and didn't fuss around with her food. After eating she was desperate to go out. They went to their usual destination, the park. She refused to be carried and would not hold his hand, causing them to get there rather slowly, since compared to James she was of course a slow walker.

Already at the gate James recognized the woman who had been there a few times before. Her stomach was even bigger then the last time and James was almost sure that if it would expand by one more inch, her skin would simply give out and rip. Henry was playing happily in the sandbox and as they came closer Louella recognized him.

"Henwy!" She ran over to him, forgetting completely about being grumpy and difficult. James sighed heavily as he sat down on the bench next to the woman. He'd seen her a couple of times, talked to her for almost an hour each time and the strangest thing was he didn't even know her name.

"Hey." She greeted him, noticing how worn out he looked, "Rough day?".

"That would be an understatement." He was surprised when she started laughing.

"Even the nicest ones have their moments."

They kept talking, about anything and everything. She was great at lighting up his mood. Time flew by like it had the previous times. Before he knew it, it was almost 2pm and both Henry and Louella were looking tired.

The woman set her son in a stroller.

"Hey, I still don't know your name." she said it as if she'd only just realized.

"It's James." Saying his name normally instead of his usual line felt so strange to him.

"I'm Sarah." She put her hand on her abdomen "and this will hopefully be Abigail in a short six weeks."

He laughed at the remark, earning an odd look from Louella, who obviously couldn't understand what was going on.

"I've been wondering if that thigs still going to grow?"

"Probably a bit." She shrugged, "I think we should get going, these two look pretty tired."

"That would be wise."

"Hopefuly we'll see you guys round someday. Bye Louella." Sarah waved at the little girl getting the same reaction from Henry.

"Bye bye Ella!"

She waved too, not willing to move until Henry and his mother were out of sight. When they were gone James picked her up and just then she remembered that she was angry at him. Even though the walk back was only a few blocks, he was in agony, her small feet landing a few well aimed kicks to his ribs. But she was too worn to stay awake and dozed off before they reached their destination. He gently took of her coat and shoes, leaving them on the floor in the hall.

She was so sweet now that she was asleep, he just couldn't put her down. James made himself comfortable on the couch and sat there with his slumbering daughter. He still found his new life uncanny, but he was starting to get attached to Louella more everyday. He smoothed her hair for a while and then fell asleep too, absolutely exhausted of everything that had happened.

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Eve Monneypenny dropped the two shopping bags she had onto her bedroom floor. She'd been out shopping, splurging on a new dress for her date. She jumped into the shower, pampering her body and hair with body scrub, shower gel and a hair mask. The woman spent the better part of an hour, doing her hair.

She entered her bedroom, taking out the dress she'd purchased, looking it over before laying it down on the bed and discarded the bag next to the closet, throwing it into the corner behind the door. Eve pulled on a pair of stockings before slipping into the dark purple dress. She put on some make-up, eyeing herself in the mirror. Pleased with what she saw, she slipped on her brand new heels and left.

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Tanner was so nervous he was having sweaty hands. He had arrived at the _Princess Garden _restaurant ten to six, waiting for Eve. He had barely slept the previous night, both because he wanted this to work out and because he was worried if it was actually going to. It could work out, but it could go so horribly wrong. His mind rambeled on for five more minutes, until he realized Eve was walking towards him.

"Hi." He jumped up, greeting her.

"Hey, have you been waiting for a long time?" she gave him a hug to break the tension.

"No, I arrived a short while ago." He looked her over, a smile forming on his lips. The purple dress she was wearing made her look even more beautiful than usual, with the semi-exposed back. He pulled out the chair for her, being fascinated by the way her diamond earrings sparkled in the light as she moved.

A waitress soon arrived, taking their orders. Eve took a sip of her wine, hoping it the alcohol would soon loosen Bill up a little. He seemed so nervous, it touched her heart to think she could have such an effect on him.

"So, what have you done all day?" she asked him.

"Not much really. I just relaxed, enjoying my day off."

"Yeah, work has been mayhem lately." She told him about a story she'd heard one day out on her lunch break with one of the girls in the office before their food arrived.

Both had relaxed by now, talking as loosely as they had in the past. They ate their dinner with a few jokes and stories and then ordred dessert. Eve told him about Friday, the meeting with Q, M and James.

"She looked quite weary in that cast and I can totally understand her. I once broke my right hand when I was in eight-grade and going to school and studying was rather hard and that itching, oh god."

He laughed at the dramatic way she rolled her eyes "How'd you brake it?"

"My hand?"

"Yeah."

"Well," she started, drawing the word out "it's a quite embarrassing story. You have to promise not to tell anyone."

"All right, I swear I will never tell a living soul how you managed to break your hand." He said, raising one hand in the air and putting the other one on his chest.

"Okay, well it all started on Halloween when this new girl came to our class. She had a crush on my best friend, Connor, but I thought there was something fishy about her. However Connor liked her and so I told him, if he really liked her, he should ask her out to winter formal." She made a small pause, taking a sip from her wine, "They got together and seemed happy. Unfortunately she would try to keep Connor away from me and I was of course pissed off. On Valentine's day our school had a dance and I caught her making out with some other guy in the hallway. At that point I was furious and when she told me that she had Connor wrapped around her little finger and was only playing wth him, I lost it. So I punched her. I punched her so hard that I broke my hand."

He burst out laughing, almost spitting out his drink.

"You punched a girl so hard that you broke your hand?" he gaped in disbelief.

"Yeah," she looked slightly ashamed, but amused "Needless to say there never was a Valentine's day dance at the school again."

"If you broke your hand, did she break her jaw?"

"I don't know actually. I was suspended for a week and when I came back her family had moved to China."

Bill laughed again, making the waitress that was bringing their desserts smile. They finished off the sweet little peaces of heaven quickly. It was now almost nine thirty and they decided it was time to leave. They had work to do in the morning after all.

"I really enjoyed this." Eve said as Bill hailed her a cab.

"Me too. We should do this again sometime soon." She nodded in agreement.

He opened the door for her.

"I had a lovely night. Thank you." She kissed him on the cheek and got into the cab.

"Good night Eve. Get home save." He shut the door and the taxi drove off.

He really hoped this would work out.

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	10. Chapter 10

_**A/N: **Finally finished this chapter. I've been writing it for almost five days and the reason I'm so slow is because my eyes are sore. I probably won't update this week anymore, since I promised to put up a chapter for Blue Brown Eyes and I'm slow. But now, enjoy this chapter and your weekend!_

_RebaForever15 - I keep seeing really weird dreams and I can extract a great deal of little scenes like that from those dreams._

_mollyweasleyforever - I agree with you and that is obviously why I write about them. They will probably make an appearance in the next chapter._

_Guest - Yes, the problem is solved and I have a plan for at least the next two chapters._

_Lele - Welcome to the story! Yes, Louella is indeed a Bond and toddler of course, which I think makes her quite a case. At least in my mind. I hope you continue to read._

_**Chapter Ten – Missing Piece**_

The new week started off rainy. It poured all Monday and most of Tuesday. When the rain stopped for a few short hours James and Louella went to the park, only to find it packed with people who were trying to get some fresh air. But it did not last too long and the entire evening and night were filled with the ripple of the rain. On Wednesday James was starting to get fed up with the rain.

"Daddy?" Louell pulled on his shirt "Paingk?"

It took him a moment to realize what she meant. "You want to paint?" he asked frowning.

"Uh-huh" Louella bobbed her her up and down to emphasize her answer.

"Okay, lets paint."

James covered the kitchen table with newspaper before putting a large paper in front of Louella's highchair. Then he opened the finger paint set, setting it next to the paper.

"Ready?" He asked lifting Louella into the chair. She made a squealing noise and dipped her fingers into the green paint box.

James watched the gleeful girl, smiling at how much she was enjoying herself. Louella did her very best to create a masterpiece with only her clumsy little hands. At some point she decided painting his hand would be fun. He smiled as she drew her soggy paint covered finger over the back of his hand, creating different colored stripes and waves.

Fifteen minutes later she was done with the painting. He carefully washed both their hands and cleaned up the kitchen. James looked at the painting his daughter had made. She had clearly tried to draw something specific, he could tell by the way there were a few distinct areas and shapes.

While Louella was taking a nap, James was occupied with washing some laundry. He hadn't washed done it in quite a while, all his suits he sent to the dry cleaners and he used so little other clothes, that whatever he did use he just sent there too. Of course he was often obligated to get new suits and shirts, since they got ripped and stained with blood or a huge amount of dirt on his missions. It was strange, but he had to admit he did not completely hate it. The texture of the wet clothes felt awful, but James liked the rows of Louella's tiny shirts and pants. He looked at the little colony of dinky light pink socks next to his big black ones.

James tried to keep the house orderly, but he had to admit that he smiled whenever he found a toy completely out of place in the strangest of places. When he'd first gotten Louella, she was of course his daughter, but more an obligation than a choice. But as the days had passed, even though he was still clumsy and insecure, it had after all only been twelve days. But those twelve days had made him realize that beside his job he didn't actually have anything. There was no girlfriend or wife, no family, no friends, no pets, not even a proper home. It hadn't bothered him, until now when he realized he actually liked not being alone.

He'd still go back to work, though. The job had always been there and would continue to do so. Of course M would select only shorter missions, but that didn't matter. A James Bond who didn't hunt criminals and save the day for England simply wasn't James Bond anymore.

Just then Louella called out for him. James went to fetch her, noticing her looking somber after glancing out the window.

"Don't like the rain, huh?"

She shook her head no.

"Yeah, I don't like it either." James brushed some hair off of her face, "What do you want to do?"

"Visit?" Louella looked at him slightly insecure if she'd gotten it right.

"You want to visit someone? Who do you want to visit?"

She crumpled her face, thinking hard of the few people she knew. "Emma." She finally said, relieved to have found an answer that pleased her.

James was a little surprised, but then again, Louella didn't know many people and she had liked M the previous times they'd met.

"Allright, but we'll have to call her first. Do you want to ask her?"

She nodded, even though she wasn't sure if she could formulate a proper sentence. James dialed the number and put in on speaker.

"Remember to say hi." He told her while the phone rang.

"Hello?" M's voice came from the phone.

"Hello!" Louella said cheerily, "I and Daddy visit?".

"Bond is this you?" M asked suspiciously.

"Huh?" The little girl looked at her father confused of what the answer was.

"I didn't know your hearing is so bad that you can't distinguish a two year olds voice from a grown man's."

He heard her scoff on the other end.

"You also might have overheard said toddlers request. And before you jump to any conclusions, it was her idea. "

A loud sigh emanated from the speaker, "Alright, but you'll have to bring some juice and something for tea."

"Great."

She hung up the phone.

"We go?" Louella asked, still not understanding what was going on.

"Yes, we're going. Now let's get your coat."

M watched James park his car form her window. It was still raining, like it had for the past three days. She was never sure how she felt about rain. In general it was depressing and she always got her feet wet, but then on the other hand, working a long day seemed far more pleasant when it rained. When the sun shone and she was stuck in her office, it made her feel like she had no life outside of work. Must be because she didn't. Her kids were all grown up and her husband was dead.

James picked up a white plastic bag from the passengers seat and Louella from the back seat before he jogged to her door.

She opened it the second they stepped on her porch.

"Thanks." He stepped in and set Louella down.

"Emma!" Louella was happy to have arrived at the womans home. She found the lady with the cast quite nice and trustworthy. "We get dem cake." She informed, continuing to blabber incoherently about their trip to the supermarket.

James deposited the apple pie and juice bottle on the kitchen counter. Louella was obviously glad to be out of the house and do something exciting. She kept talking about what they had done that day. M tried her best to understand what the little girl was saying, but because she still lacked a lot of words that was rather hard.

"What did you paint?" M asked the Louella after grasping the fact that she'd been painting earlier.

"Twee. Dem wif the pwetty wed-" she thought hard of to find a word "twee flowew?"

She looked to her father for help or approval.

"Do you mean leaf?" he asked after a moment.

"Uh-huh. Leef." She repeated the newly learnt word.

"Well that sounds like a lot of fun."

James placed two cups of lemon tea, a mug of pear juice and tree plates with a slice of pie on the table. Again he had Louella sit in his lap, James hadn't forgotten about the last time. She seemed perfectly content, exploring the sweet food in front of her, eating it slowly.

To James' great astonishment M had quite a range of children's movies. Of course she had grandkids, but he never thought she'd be the type to let them just watch movies instead of going out. Louella was very pleased and proceeded to pick out _The Tigger Movie_.

After an hour she was getting sleepy. In no time Louella was snuggled up against her fathers chest and soundly asleep.

James moved his head slightly to the left to confirm that she had indeed dozed off. He sighed knowing how grumpy she would get if he'd wake her up.

M turned her head towards the two, due to James' cordial sigh.

"Grumpy when woken?" M was all too familiar with this phenomenon. Her youngest son had been impossible if he was woken at night. First he would refuse to sleep and then it would exaggerate to the point where he would be screaming and throwing things around.

"Yeah."

"You can lay her down in the guest bedroom."

James did as he was told, setting Louella down on the bed. The bed was neatly made and the only telling signs that it was in fact her (temporary) bedroom was the small pile of cushions and the few personal items on the nightstand. He covered his daughter with the felt that lied next to the cushions.

A minute later he sat in the living room with M. They eyed each other in silence for some time. Words weren't always necessary with them. Some days she would come home to find him leaning against the window or sitting on the couch, drinking her scotch. It didn't even shock her anymore these days. But when she found him she didn't always get mad. Sometimes M poured herself a glass too and they would drink, until eventually one of them broke the silence.

"How are you really feeling?" M asked him straight forward with a no nonsense tone. Like any other person he could always answer that question with 'fine', but lying wasn't what they did.

James sighed again, running his hand over his face. "It's just so odd. All I do all day is prepare food, take her to the bathroom, bathe her, bring her out and play with her. My hole life has boiled down to that."

"That is the definition of kids. Your life becomes insignificant compared to theirs. It's a hard thing to adapt to. Usually parents start off with the most needy creature, a newborn and from there on the amount of care decreases slowly."

He looked M straight in the eyes, wondering if he should tell her about his recent discovery of feelings for his daughter. She was in a sense his only friend, a person who he could rely on. She was of course his boss and that made the subject touchy. Even though he hadn't exactly respected her privacy in the past, she hadn't ever snooped on him. M simply knew a lot, because she had to as a part of her job.

After the whole mess at Skyfall with Silva things had changed a lot. Whenever he decided to help himself to her liquor cabinet they would eventually have some sort of conversation, usually a very honest one.

M had worked with the man in front of her for fourteen years. He looked a bit older than he actually was, the job wearing him out both mentally and physically. She knew she was some sort of mother figure to him and she had in fact learned a few things about him over these years. One of them was the fact that he would speak when he felt comfortable and sure about it. Usually a bit of alcohol helped, but that wasn't an option.

"It's just-" He stopped for a moment, trying to figure out what he wanted to say, "I've just realized how empty my life has been. There's been nothing besides the job."

Hearing these words from James Bond, her best agent was not something she expected to happen.

"You know, you're the last person I thought would ever come to me with this issue. It happens everyday, but you?"

He shrugged, understanding her point. "Can't miss what you don't know. But this doesn't mean I quit, if that's what you're after." James leaned back on the couch, taking a long sip of the scotch, "We both will have to go eventually, but I'm working at MI6 as long as you are."

The double 0 agent had thought about his job often enough and he had more then once reached that exact conclusion. If Mallory, or anyone else for that matter, would replace M, he would probably not be able to handle it. She let him break the rules, as long as he did the job properly and obeyed her every command while on a mission. No one else would put up with that.


	11. Chapter 11

_**A/N: **Sorry it took me this long to get __this chapter up. I'm still not completely happy with this, but I'm sick and tired of rewriting bit after bit, because it doesn't change that much really. I have a rather busy week right now and I'm going away for the weekend. I'll try to post before I go, but if that isn't possible I hope to at least write while I'm away. Extra big thanks to RebaForever15, you're the main reason I finally got this finished. Remember guys, reviews make new chapter come faster._

_RebaForever15 - Thank you! I was extremely happy to see an update on your behalf too._

_Clara-Lis - Happy to tell you that the wait is over :)_

_mollyweasleyforever - I've always seen M as a bit of a mother hen._

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_**Chapter Eleven – Louella**_

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"Daddy!" Louella called out for her father while scooting down the hall with Henry a mere two feet behind her. She ran into his arms squeeling loudly when Henry poked her.

"Tag!" He shouted with glee. It was a matter of seconds before both were running wildly around the room.

Sarah laughed at the joyful children, breaking the quiet piece of the room. She had invited her and Henry's new friends over for a play date. London in the fall tended to be rainy and so it had been again this weekend. Moving around was getting harder for her every day and she was glad to have somebody to power out her son.

James could merely smirk. Henry and Louella had learned a new game today and had played it for over an hour. It seemed to never get boring and he was surprised that neither one had gotten hurt despite their mindless, blind sprints.

"Aren't you two ever getting tired?" Sarah asked as they jumped around.

"No!" Both shouted simultaneously, panting heavily.

"Ok, well why don't we take a break anyway." She started to get up and once she was on her feet managed to grab Henry's arm, "Time for a snack."

All four of them ate fruit salad and drank some juice. While eating Henry and Louella seemed to get out of their hyperactive state and feel the loss of energy from their game earlier. Both were content on sitting on the living room floor watching _Teletubbies_, Louella in between James and Sarah, Henry on Sarah's other side. He draped himself over her stomach, watching television.

After that they left, as it was almost half past five already and Louella's bedtime was just around the corner. James had finally made use of the stroller, having already doubted how useful it would actually be, since he could easily carry Louella around. However it was almost a thirty minute walk to Sarah's house and that seemed preferable to do with a stroller.

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"Good Night Sweetheart." James kissed his daughter on the forehead. She gave him a weak smile in return, sleep weighing heavily on her eyelids. Her eyes fluttered shut, the last thing registering in her mind was the soft squeak of the door.

He sunk down on the couch, switching on the television to fill the silence that was beginning to settle in the house. He kept the volume low, paying only little attention to the program. He was in some sort of trance, his body and mind resting a while before the task of organizing everything back to where it belonged would claim his evening.

In that trance he didn't notice the black _Jaguar _pull up on the street infront of his townhouse. M got out of the car, moving towards his front door on her crutches while her driver brought with him a semi-large red-ish box. She thanked her driver, taking the box from him, telling him to return in fifteen minutes. She set both her crooks against the door frame, carrying the box in one hand and knocking with the other.

James was startled by the knock on his door. He lept quickly and effortlessly into the hall, reaching the door in no time. Upon opening it he saw M on the porch. He hadn't expected her to come over. They hadn't spoken in a week and just showing up was more his style than hers.

"Bond!" She shouted for the third time, dragging him out of his thoughts.

"What?" He said shaking his head lightly as if to shake off whatever had distracted him.

"A little help would be nice."

"Right." He took the box from her, not bothering to glance at the title on the cover. They moved inside and settled in the living room.

"How are things back at the job?"

"Same as usual. Mallory's coming back tomorrow and he'll probably want a meeting first thing on Friday morning."

"Is that why you're working late on your third day back at work?" he asked, knowing it wasn't that. M overdid it everytime. The bloody woman just couldn't work normal hours.

"No, I was waiting for this." She pointed towards the box on the table, "It's for you. I thought it might help you a bit."

James surveyed the box properly for the first time. I was a simple thick red-ish cardboard box with metal corners. It looked a little scuffed and had something scribbled on the lid. He got up to see the name _Louella Malin Sorensen. _He lifted the lid, seeing a wide variety of what seemed like books, photos and other random stuff.

"She was keeping a box with notes and photos, basically a record of Louella's life so far." M stated, referring to the woman who had collected all the things.

James picked up a photo displaying a pretty blonde woman with a smiling baby in her arms. He just stared at it, not having seen her face for more than three years.

"It was delivered today. There are some other items of which I wasn't sure if you wanted them. They'll be kept in store for a month. That should be enough time for you to decide."

A few minutes passed in silence, before M noticed her ride driving up to the street. "I should go." She got up from the couch, putting her coat back on.

"Thank you." He said, realizing suddenly that she was still in the room.

"You're welcome."

James, not having forgotten his manners, made sure she got to the car safely. He stood there for a few more moments, watching the car speed off.

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Despite being more than curious James managed to clean the flat first. He took the box up to his bedroom, setting it in the middle of his bed.

After twenty minutes of nervous pacing he settled on the bed, sitting cross leged. He lifted the lid off, moving his head to see properly. The first thing he picked up was what he believed to be a photo album. James flicked trough the pages, feeling his heart twist up more and more with every picture.

_Louella as a two month old baby, frowning deeply at the camera. Her, with a butterfly on her head. A small red bow attached to her roughly three inch long hair, ripping open a Christmas present. Her mother with an enormously large abdomen. _So many beautiful images of her growing up and he hadn't witnessed a single one of them.

James closed the book, picking up something else, also a book, but not a photo album like the previous one. He opened it to realize it was a diary.

_18.11._

_Louella is practicing to sit up by herself. Is able to sit on her own for a short while now. Was flabbergasted to see snow and be able to recognize it for the very first time in her life. Went out with her to explore the magic, icy dust falling from the sky._

Beneath it was a photo taken with a polaroid camera. He set the diary next to the photo album on the bed. Next he took out the smallest piece of clothing he had ever seen. It was a tiny light pink onesie. He held it up in front of him, almost unable to believe that Louella had once fit into it.

James rummaged through the box for one more hour, scrutinizing several items and fanning through some photo albums. He basically had Louella's entire life infront of him.

What amazed him most of all was the fact how one night spent with a beautiful woman on some godforsaken oil rig in the middle of the Arctic Sea could result in this. One night with the daughter of a bad multi-millionaire and now there was a living person in the bedroom next to him, a breathing, speaking, running, squeeling and energetic girl.

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_That man, he was there again. Looking for her. She crouched up against the wall, hoping he would not see her, but he always did. They both knew when he spotted her an stood completely still before she broke out into a sprint, the bad man chasing her from far in the distance. He was big and he would eventually catch up with her, tiny legs like hers would only carry her so fast._

"_Mamma!" She screamed in vain._

_She knew he came closer every single moment, she could hear it by the loud footsteps following not far behind._

"_Mamma!" she screamed desperately._

_He caught up, yanked her to a halt by her arm. It was a very painful gesture, pulling a her muscles and joints, the grip squeezing her arm agonizingly._

That instant she woke up in her bed, alone. Tears started to stream down her cheeks. Louella got out from under the covers and walked over to the door, which was left ajar, because she couldn't quite reach the handle. There was a soft light that she walked towards automatically, not seeing all too much with her teary eyes.

"Daddyyyy!" she sobbed, running towards the bed.

James was a little taken aback by Louella running in crying. He picked her up and she buried her face immediately in his shirt, grabbing some of it into her little fists. He felt the cotton soak up with her tears.

"What's wrong?" He asked, stroking her hair calmingly.

"Dem bad man want huwt me and mamma no help."

James hadn't realized that Louella missed her mother, of course she did, it was less than a month ago when the two of them were still living together. How would the girl ever understand that the person she knew best and relied on the most was dead?

"Shhh, it's okay. Don't worry."

Once she had calmed down he packed all the various items from his bed back into the box and closed the lid. He set in the corner before he and Louella climbed into the bed. James switched off the lamp on the nightstand, feeling her cling to him immediately as darkness invaded the room.

She didn't feel all too comfortable in the dark, he could tell by the way she would toss and turn nervously. Louella also seemed to have a thing for the death grip, crushing anything she could get a hold of in her fists. It was a mere ten minutes before he switched on the lights.

They both squinted their eyes a little, the sudden brightness blinding them. They sat there for a moment just looking at each other.

"Are you going to sleep or not?"

Louella shook her head, the thought of the bad dream haunting her.

"Okay, then we might aswell do something." James wasn't sure if this was the right approach at all, but he figured tiring her out completely was the best option.

#####

_**A/N 2: Thank you for reading and please leave review on your way out!**_


	12. Chapter 12

_**A/N: **It's monday and here's the new chapter. I haven't written anything else yet, since I've slept really poorly for the past five days. Updating might be slow for the next month or so, maybe one chapter a week. I have my first exam week coming up in three short weeks, a bunch of other school related deadlines, I'm a bit sick, suffer from severe insomnia and have a lot going on on the social life front too. I'm really sorry, but I'll do my best. Besides I might get inspired by all of this boring RL stuff. Thank you to all my faithful readers and also the ones who have visited, since the 2'000 visit mark is now crossed :) I'm really excited about that. Reviews might help with the motivation to right and I would really appreciate them._

_RebaForever15 - Thank you really much! I'll try to make their time together nice, but who knows what happens once he goes back to work ;)_

_m-is-for-Molly-and-Mansfield - You are welcome and I was delighted to see you started a fic yourself too._

_JFDF - That's excatly what I thought when I was writing the chapter! I'm glad you liked it._

_ILFlynn - Thank you and I hope you keep reading._

_**#####**_

_**Chapter Twelve – Runaway**_

_**#####**_

The quartermaster was busily at work when Lilac Summers , better known as 008 strolled into Q didvision.

"Brought your gun back." She said, waving the gun in the air, "I suspect some part is broken, since it's jamming."

"I'll take a look at it." He said taking the gun, placing it into a box with gadgets that needed repairing. She thanked him and turned to leave.

"Oh, by the way" Lilac said, spinning on her heel, "do you happen to know where Bond is? We were supposed to go to Hong Kong last week, but he cancelled and there was a mission that was originally intended for him and was signed to me just a moment ago."

"He's on leave."

"Is he hurt?"

"No, just taking care of some family business."

Lilac nodded and left. "Weird," she muttered to herself as she rode up in the elevator, "I could have sworn he didn't have any family."

#####

James looked outside with a grim expression. London was once again cocooned in heavy black clouds, rain pouring down on the streets with lightning striking, causing the sky to light up. He was going to the office today to go through the stuff M had told him about. The storm had made Louella anxious and she had woken up earlier than usual.

He wasn't comfortable going to the headquarters with his daughter at all, but she couldn't be left with a sitter either. James sighed, seeing that it was half past nine and they had to leave.

"Come on, Lou." He said to the girl who was lazily playing with her toys on the floor, "We have to go visit Daddy's workplace."

#####

At MI6 headquarters everyone was busily at work, making phone calls, writing reports and running around, trying to keep the organization up and running. Being busy however didn't stop them from stopping everything they were doing when they saw a certain 00 agent walk in with a child by his side.

Louella wasn't happy at all when they entered a large room with a lot of people. The weird tunnels underground had been creepy enough, but this was just driving her towards a panick attack. The anxious twitching and death grip of Louella's hand didn't go unnoticed by James. The poor girl could not understand why so many people were staring at her. He decided to pick her up and shot a few glares at random office workers.

"Were going up there." He said to his daughter, pointing towards a door at the end of a staircase. The girl looked over to where his finger was pointing before she wrapped her hands around his neck.

From the other end of the room Lilac saw the two and was so shocked she dropped the files in her hand. She'd been on missions with James in the past and never had he told her that he had a daughter. Lilac inspected the little girl who was being carried by her father. She had blond locks and was dressed in a light pink jacket that fell mid-tigh. It had an elastic band at the bottom that gathered the rubbery material closer to the girl's legs. Louella turned her head and lilac saw a pair of blue eyes and a slightly lost looking girl, sucking on her pacifier. The girl clutched her rubber boots closer to her father's waist, trying to hold on for dear life. The sight was more than odd.

James was glad to reach the top of the stairs and get away from all those confused spectators, into a quiet hallway. When they reached M's outer office he saw Eve and Tanner talking casually to one another.

"Good morning Eve." He said cheerfully, happy to see Monneypenny after not having seen the secretary who was also sort of a friend to him for a few weeks.

"Oh, James. Hi." Eve said a little startled, blushing slightly. Tanner took a step away from her desk and buried his hands in the pockets of his pants, looking as if he'd just been caught doing something naughty.

Louella was once again delighted with Eve's hair and was blissfully happy when she was allowed to touch it.

"M should be here soon, she got stuck in a meeting with Mallory." Tanner informed James, aware of why the man was here.

"So he's safely back at work, terrorizing our department."

All three of them chuckled, confusing Louella a little, since she was oblivious to what they were talking about.

"Thank you for, well you know… getting him out of the office."

"No problem, Tanner. How long was he gone?"

"Ten days. He just came back a week ago."

"That reminds me," Eve said, snatching a file from her desk, "could you bring this down to Q division later? You had an appointment with Q later, right?"

"Yeah, sure. I should probably go back to work." Tanner said awkwardly, backing out of the office.

"Thanks, Bill!" Eve called after him.

James fidled with Louella's hair for a moment, until he was sure Bill was far enough to not hear him.

"Is something going on between you two?"

"What?" Eve was a little taken aback and blushed again.

"You heard me. And remember that I am trained to detect lies." He said with a smirk.

"Is it really that obvious?" She asked helplessly.

"Kind of. Does M know?"

"Not yet."

"Well, you'd better tell her before she finds out on her own."

"You're probably right." Eve replied with a small smile.

Just then M entered the office looking like she was ready to rip somebody's head off.

"Emma!" Louella shouted, the pacifier falling out of her mouth and onto the floor.

A look of pure surprise washed over the older woman's face before it turned into some weird expressions due to the fact that she wasn't quite sure if she was pissed that Bond had made Louella call her by her real name or delighted with how happy the little girl was with seeing her.

Eve and James both froze in anticipation for M's reaction and let out a sigh of relief when M responded to Louella's blabbering. James and M moved into her office while Louella was content on telling Eve all about how _Cinderella _got herself a prince.

"I should have you shot for that." M said dryly after she had closed the door.

"Shot for what?"

"You know bloody well what I mean. Teaching her my real name." She replied angrily, "It's classified information you know!"

"Well if it bothers you so much, shoot me."

"I wouldn't want to leave the poor girl an orphan. It's not her fault that her father is an arse." James thought that he saw a hint of a smile appear on her face, but it was gone in a second.

"Well, look at you. All sentimal and empathetic."

"Don't push it, Bond."

M gave him a few more papers to sign before she led him and Louella to a room nearby, where there were about five boxes on the floor. She left them alone and James got to work, opening the first box. Louella soon got bored and tried to occupy herself as best as she could. James groaned starting to get frustrated too.

"Sweetie, are you hungry yet?" he asked the girl. Only when she didn't answer he turned around to realize that the room was empty and the door ajar.

"Crap." In a split second he was on his feet and in the hallway. Luckily they were on a floor where the corridors weren't a giant labyrinth, but they were pretty organized. James wasn't sure which way she had gone so he turned in the direction they'd come from.

"Louella?" He hooted, jogging lightly along the rows of corridors, starting to get more panicked every second.

He spotted her pacifier near a door at the very end of the corridor. James burst trough the door to see Louella jumping down the metal staircase already almost at the bottom. She had manged to get back into the large hall with dozens of office cubicals. James was well aware of the noise she made and the fact that every single pair of eyes was glued onto one of them. He walked down the stairs, calm but quick.

"Lou." He called the girl who was walking around close to the wall. She flashed him a smile and started running away from him. In a matter of seconds James was running and caught up to her, swinging her up in the air. If someone hadn't noticed what was going on they surely did when the girl let out a loud sqeal.

"Tag." He whispered into her ear with a smile.

"You can't run away like that Louella." He said to her in a voice loud enough for people close by to hear. James set her down and they walked hand in hand back up the stairs, leaving people looking at their backs with astonished looks.

Amongst the crowd were Bill Tanner and Eve Monneypenny, both shaking their heads in amusement at the little girl with the bouncing curls.

#####

_**A/N: **Thank you for reading. Please leave a review :)_


	13. Chapter 13

_**A/N: **I'm sorry updates have slowed down so much, but I am so busy with school stuff and an interesting little thing I'm trying to write. I felt so bad that I wrote a chapter. Mainly a filler and a shortie because I don't want to just skip out weeks at a time. I hope to be able to update next week, but I am stretching it to do the basics already, so I'm not sure. But now, enjoy!  
_

m-is-for-Molly-and-Mansfield - Oh, you. Stop it, you're making me blush :D Thanks really much.

ILFlynn - Thanks for your review :)

Sunday - You are on to something! I didn't bring those two in for nothing and I've got some plans to say this chapter is a bit more orientated around Eve and Bill, even though James, Lou, Sara and Henry make an appearance. I'll get back to James's and Louella's life in the next chapter with. Sarah might be MIA for a moment though since baby Abigail has to make her grand entrance sometime soon. But maybe you would like to meet her husband?

#####

_**Chapter Thirteen – Dreaded Meetings**_

_**#####**_

All of London was bathed in sunlight, which was a rear occurrence in the progressing fall. The streets were still wet from the rainfall of the previous light, the pavement glistening in the sun. The park was crowded with mothers and sreaming children, even at noon, and so James and Sarah had decided to go for coffee instead. They didn't exactly live in the heart of the city, but there was still a fairly good selection of cafés close by.

Louella and Henry had somehow become like unseparable best friends, deciding they wanted to do everything together and so they shared a piece of strawberry cake, talking with each other. James and Sarah didn't even try to keep up with what they were saying.

"So what's this whole panicking thing you have about your mother-in-law?" He asked her.

"She is horrible, really! I'd rather be locked in a tank of water with three inches of water between the surface and the roof and swimming spiders, snakes and worms in there with me than have her over for dinner. But Micheal says it'll be better to have her over before the baby is born or she'll make some mean remarks about how fat or tired I look."

"Why would she do that?"

Sarah shrugged, "She just hates me, I guess. I mean you'd think she'd be happy to get some grandkids out of me, since Micheal's previous fiancé didn't want any."

"Yeah, that's pretty nasty."

"She loves Micheal and she treats Henry decently, but she just hates me." Sarah looked defeated. There was nothing she could do.

"Well then she must be crazy. You are nice and a great mother."

"Thanks." She blushed slightly.

#####

"Bill, I think your steak is burning!" Eve called out for the man, who was desperately attempting to keep the sauce from clumping.

"Crap." He lept over to the pan and tried to stop the disaster that was forming. Eve walked over to him, took the sauce and stirred it skillfully.

"Cooking definitely isn't your thing."

"It's fine usually, but you distract me." He said, smiling coyly.

"Way to flatter a woman. Were you planning on making some vegies or a salad, or are you going to be all manly?"

"I do have some zucchini." Bill grabbed the vegetable out of the fridge.

Eve left him with the sauce, slicing and seasoning the zucchini before frying it with the steak. He was impressed with her cooking skills. They ate the dinner in the dining room, candles scattered all over.

"I think we should tell M." Eve said, biting on down on her lip.

"Tell her about what?"

"Well, us. James figured it out last week in the office. He said we should tell M before she finds out on her own and I think he's right."

"That would be for the best, probably." He said slowly.

"I mean, I know it's not been that long, but I want her to hear it from us."

"You are right. Should we do it tomorrow?" Bill asked.

"Alright. Come to the office at ten. She should be back from her meeting with Mallory then."

"Do you really think it is best to tell her right after a meeting with Mallory?"

"Hmm, maybe you come after lunch. I can soften her up a bit by then."

#####

James had discovered that Louella had a passion for dancing. He did his best not to laugh as the little girl was jumping on the couch wiggeling to the music. Ever since he'd discovered this a few days earlier, he had left the radio on all day. She would just randomly start doing different dance moves.

"Okay, that's enough dancing for now. Time for dinner."

"Daddy nooooo." She made her best fake pout, but he wasn't fooled so easily.

Once Louella was confronted with the lasagna on her plate she forgot about the music completely. She liked the pasta dish, but to James's great agony she wasn't all that good at eating it without making a complete mess. This night was no different from others and so Louella had her hands covered in tomato sauce and cheese within minutes. James ripped off a paper towel and wiped her hands with it, deciding it would be easiest to just feed her.

#####

Monneypenny was tapping a pen against her desk, nervous of what was to come. Bill was late and she was nervous enough as it is.

"Moneypenny, is M in?" A tall man with droad shoulders and neatly combed hair had popped in, a double-0 agent back from a mission.

"Yes, she's free." Eve replied, shuffling the papers on her desk. She watched the man knock on the door and be called in.

"Oh Bill, where are you?" she muttered after the agent had closed the door. Sure enough five minutes later Bill Tanner strolled into her office, panting a bit.

"I'm sorry, I got caught up with a problem downstairs." He said apologetically after seeing her glare, "She's still in, right?"

"Yes, but 004 is in there right now." She said. Bill sat down on the couch on the opposite wall of her desk and they waited in silence.

When they heard movementand a click of the door Tanner was already on his feet, looking as if he had just arrived, instead of luring in the outer office for half an hour.

"Tanner."

"Holbrook." both men greated each other stoically before the agent left the room.

Eve knocked on M's door, tugging her skirt down nervously. Tanner straightened his suit and tie.

"Come in." M called.

They both came in and stood awkwardly by the door. M glanced at them over her reading glasses.

"What's going on?"

"Erm, we just wanted to tell you that we are, um, dating each other." Bill stammered.

"Oh." The older woman said slightly surprised. She had thought them to be just friends, but they would make a nice couple too.

"We won't let it interfere with our work Ma'am. We know that office romances are, well…" Eve trailed off.

"Well I better hope so. Congratulations."

Both of them backed out of the office and closed the door.

"That wasn't so bad." Eve said with a sigh of relief.

"It wasn't all that smooth either."

#####


	14. Chapter 14

_**A/N: **Just some fluff and stuff that I randomly wrote. Next chapter will move back to the sort of plot when a new character will be __introduced. You guys can give name suggestions for the lady if you want to. I am extremely busy and away on the weekend (without my laptop) and so this will probably be it for a week or so._

_RebaForever15 - Thanks for the review! I really wonder where I should take those two? Maybe they'll be MIA for a while._

_#####_

_**Chapter Fourteen – Work, Friends And Family**_

_**#####**_

The head of MI6 sat in her office, diverting her eyes from the file she was reading to the window. It was just another regular autumn day, but M just didn't feel like working. She had the task of finding a nanny for Louella, since the girl would have to be introduced to one in just a short two weeks.

M leaned over her desk to pick up the bulldog porcelain figure. It was ugly, but she loved it nevertheless. She was glad to finally have the cast off, but she was still walking with cruthes until her leg would heal completely.

_At least I don't have that horrendous itching thing on my foot anymore._

M decided it was time for a coffee break. She had the urge to get out of the office to breathe some fresh air instead of this mechanically conditioned coolness. She took her coat and headed out, leaving a note for Eve.

#####

Louella bobbed along the sidewalk, energized by the brisk, cool November air. She was excited to go to the park and meet Henry again.

James watched her as she bent down to great a snail, talking to it as if it was her friend. _The innocence and imagination children have, it's really amazing_. Louella saw only good in everything, now that she felt like she had a safe home and a reliable parent again.

Henry was already waiting for her in the park, peering at the end of the playground.

"Ella!" he screamed once he saw her and bolted off towards her direction.

"Henwy!"She ran too and they started a conversation immediately. James shook his head, amused by the two toddlers who acted like two teenage girls that hadn't seen each other for a day.

"Hi, you must be James." A man with dark brown hair and green eyes approached James, "I'm Micheal, Henry's dad. My wife told me he's made a new friend at the playground."

"Nice to meet you." They shook hands and tended to the two children that needed to be lifted into swings and onto slides.

Henry kept telling Louella every single detail about his newborn sister, repeating himself once in a while. She got equally wound up about the baby, even though she hadn't actually seen it yet.

#####

A week later James found himself in Sarah's living room with a cup of tea in his hands. Sarah was walking into the room with a little baby. Louella and Henry waited in anticipation, both on opposite sides of a soft padded area set up on the floor. She put the baby down. The two toddlers watched in awe as the little human being scrunched her face up, twisting her body slightly.

"You have to be very careful." Sarah said in a very quiet voice, "You have to brush her head softly."

She ran her own fingers over the baby's wispy, light brown hair. Louella followed the example, barely touching its head. The baby was warm and and its eyes strayed, struggling to focus on anything. Henry stroked his sister head too and the two of them sat with the baby for a long time.

Sarah had gingerly sat down on the couch, still in slight pain and ready to jump up to tend to her baby at any minute. She nearly jumped to the roof when the doorbell rang unexpectedly. James moved over to the three kids, making sure nothing would happen while Sarah went to see who was at the door.

"Felix!" He heard her calling before her voice lowered to an incoherent level. After a brief conversation, footsteps moved towards the living room.

The two men locked eyes, both frozen upon seeing each other.

"What are you doing here?" James asked the young man, who pushed his glasses up.

"I, um, Sarah is my cousin." Q said awkwardly.

"Do you know each other?" She asked, casting a curious look at both men.

"We work together." They said simultaneously.

"I see. Would you like some tea, Felix?" She turned to Q who took her up on the offer. He came over to James and the children when Sarah disappeared in the kitchen.

"Felix?" James said a bit amused.

Q felt a blush creep up his cheeks and settled on the floor next to Henry. Louella remembered him because of his hair and soon Q was wrapped up in some sort of conversation with Louella and Henry. He barely understood anything, but the toddlers seemed to enjoy themselves.

"There's tea and some pie on table. Help yourself and those two." Sarah pointed to Henry and Louella, "I'm going to go feed Abigail."

Q, James, Louella and Henry all sat at the table. James had learned that things at the office were quiet and that M was bored out of her mind.

"She needs you to mees things up and keep her busy." Q stated.

James laughed. "Half the time she threatens to shoot me for the stunts I pull off. I guess she's just gotten so used to it by now."

"Monneypenny and Tanner are apparently a couple now. At least I think so."

"They are. Eve was terrible at hiding it and well Tanner isn't all that good either. I just hope she took my advice and told M."

"When did you find out?"

"The other week, when I was in. You probably heard of that." James said, recalling all the looks he got when Louella was running around office cubicals.

"Who hasn't?" Q asked with a frown.

#####

_**A/N 2: **So this was just a shortie. I have some ideas for the nanny, but I'm not sure and settled yet. Please review on your way out :)_


	15. Chapter 15

_**A/N: **Well, this took quite some time. Wrote this today in a surge of inspiration, even though I should be studying :( It's just so damn hard. I'm sorry for the wait and sorry to tell you that I don't know when the next chapter will be up since my exam week starts tomorrow. Let me know what you think of the nanny :) I got the idea from a dream I had the other night. This chapter was written whilst listening soundtracks from chitty chitty bang bang, which is an awesome movie btw. Enjoy!_

_m-is-for-Molly-and-Mansfield - Glad you liked Q's name. I wanted to go for something that didn't start with Q and I had to look quite some time before I found a name that clicked. I have some ideas for using those name suggestions later on in the story. I got a little plan involving some new people, people of the smaller kind ;)_

Sunday - I have no idea what is wrong with the reviewing thing, I hope it works now? At least I got your review. Thanks for that. Who is Leiter? I hope you like what I did with that name suggestion of yours.

ILFlynn - I dearly hope this satisfies you to some extent. Thank you for reviewing. It helps with writing, no matter how simple it is.

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_

_**Chapter Fifteen – Mary Poppins**_

The silver Aston Martin of the 00 agent slid into the parking lot of MI6. He drove it smoothly into a parking spot, turning off the engine once the car came to a halt. James took a deep breath. He was about to meet Louella's nanny. He turned around to look at the back seat where Louella was looking at him.

"Ready to meet your nanny?"

She nodded a bit shyly. The thought of a woman who was going to live with them on some days made her a bit queasy. Soon Louella was lifted out of her car seat and set down on the ground.

The two gathered quite a few looks on their way through the large hall to M's office. She remembered the place and was not as scared as the previous time. Louella still eyed all the passing people carefully with her big blue eyes.

Eve was out of the office so James sat down on the couch in M's outer office, pulling Louella onto his lap. A few minutes later she swept into the room with a stack of papers in her arms.

"Good morning Bond." The secretary gave him a small smile before sitting down at her desk, shuffling the papers around to a wanted order.

"Morning miss Moneypenny. How are you?"

"I'm fine, thanks."

The phone rang once before she had scooped the receiver into her hand. "I'll send him right in." She said, putting the receiver back in its place. James didn't need to hear her say it. He was already on his feet and at his boss' door.

"Good morning ma'am." He said stepping into the room, closing the door after him.

"Ellow Emma!" Louella said gleefully, not having seen the woman in a while. M shot James a glare not liking to be called by her real name at work, especially her first name.

"This is miss Poppins." She said, getting up from her chair and motioning her hand towards a woman sitting in a chair in front of her desk.

"Please call me Mary-Jo." The woman said, turning around to shake James' hand, "It is a pleasure to meet you."

"Bond. James Bond." He took her hand and shook in firmly. "Mary-Jo Poppins, eh?" he said with a smirk.

She had heard about her ironic name many times before, "I'm afraid I have given up the flying around by umbrella. Sorry to disappoint you Mr. Bond."

"I see." James nodded and sat down in the other chair.

M explained the arrangements to them once more as quickly as possible. Mary-Jo was to live at James' house whenever he was away on a mission. The first week she would spend there continuously so that Louella got used to her. Then James would start returning to work, starting with a few hours a day and slowly expanding to a full blown work day and finally get to go on proper missions again. He himself was surprised at just how flexible M had made the whole thing, but if he was to continue fieldwork it had to be as smooth as possible.

Louella didn't know what to make of the woman. She had auburn hair reaching the middle of her back and deep dark brown eyes that looked sympathetic. The woman had a thin figure, thinner than most women. It reminded her of a doll.

Half an hour later they were on their way back to the parking lot. Mary-Jo's car was a yellow VW beetle. It suited her quite well in James' opinion, even though he himself didn't like that kind of cars. At least it was a safe car.

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Mary-Jo set her duffle bag onto the bed in the small bedroom that was now hers. It wasn't too big with only a 120cm wide bed, a night table, a bookcase and a small closet. There was also a small bath next to it in the hall. It would do for the days she was staying here and she could make it really cozy if she'd try.

She started unpacking, stacking her clothes into the closet and putting a few books and other items on the nightstand. She would decorate it properly some other day. From the corner of her eye Mary-Jo caught Louella looking at her with her head popped out of her bedroom.

"Would you like to do something Louella?" she asked the little girl who immediately got extremely shy.

Mary-Jo sat down on Louella's bedroom floor, grabbing a few wooden building blocks. She stacked them into a tower about as high as Louella. The little girl looked cautiously at her new nanny, deciding to build a tower herself too. It wasn't long before she completely forgot about Mary-Jo, getting too absorbed in the building sight in front of her.

James came up the stairs, standing in the doorframe. "Nice to see the two of you already get along." He said, surprised that Louella hadn't retorted into a corner with having faced a strange person all by herself, "I made some meatloaf for lunch.".

"Sounds great. I'm really hungry actually." Mary-Jo exclaimed getting up and stretching.

Only then did Louella snap out of her daze and sprint to her father. James scooped her up into his arms and they all went to eat into the kitchen downstairs.

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"She's a very cute little girl." Mary-Jo said, stirring her tea absentmindedly.

James nodded, not sure what to say. He wasn't a man of many words, but Louella was down for a nap and he was left alone with the nanny. She was still young, probably 23 years old. She was a trained agent he knew that, but she just managed to look so nanny like that it was hard for him to believe it. _A double career must be nice. _He thought.

The silence grew uncomfortably awkward for both of them. He could see her biting her lip and shifting on her chair.

"I'm surprised she played with you. Louella is a bit shy with most people." James said in attempt to break the ice.

"Yeah, I noticed. I'm glad about it. I am after all going to be spending quite a lot of time with her."

Again he nodded, trying hard to come up with some sort of verbal response to avoid falling into silence again.

"Why did you become a nanny, besides the name of course? You are a trained agent after all."

The question made her smirk. "Well my parents are both agents so I kind of went with that since my childhood wasn't exactly normal. I really like kids and since it's kind of easy for me to get a job at MI6 I figured I could be a nanny for kids of agents. Give them that stability and illusion of a normal life that I never had." She confessed.

"I see."

"What made you become an agent in the first place?"

"I became an orphan. That's pretty much it." He shrugged.

This time she was the one to nod, "They always make the best recruits."

"You just quoted M there." James said in an amused tone. Mary-Jo's mouth curled into a smile. A most adorable smile in James' opinion.

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**_A/N 2: _**_Reviews are highly appreciated :D_


	16. Chapter 16

_**A/N: **I seem to have a lot of ideas right now and I somehow even manage to get them written down. So here's a new chapter. In case someone doesn't know: The title is a song from Mary Poppins. For anyone reading Blue Brown Eyes: I have writers block and I'm sorry I haven't updated in a few weeks. And as always reviews are highly appreciated._

_RebaForever15 - I'm glad you like the name. Please, please update soon!_

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_**Chapter Sixteen – Let's Go Fly A Kite**_

Louella was rather stunned in the morning when she woke up and found Mary-Jo to be in the house. The toddler stood in the hall looking very puzzled at the sleeping form of her nanny. There had been someone in the house when she had gone to bed a few times before, but never had anybody slept there. This nanny thing was not at all what she had thought it to be like.

"Lou? What are you doing?" James mumbled with a sleepy voice, rubbing his eyes. He had noticed a flash of the girl when she had gone into the hall and when she hadn't come back he got up to check on her. Louella didn't respond, but merely looked at him for a moment before turning to look at Mary-Jo again. He sighed deciding to let her do whatever it was she was trying to do.

Mary-Jo who was a morning person woke up well rested, even though it was only seven in the morning and she hadn't set an alarm. She immediately noticed Louella in the hall. The woman got out of bed and into the hall.

"Hey, what are you doing here all on your own sweetie?" she reached out her hand to smooth over the girls messy curls. Louella nibbled nervously on her pacifier and fiddled with the hem of her nightgown. Mary-Jo crouched down in front of her in an attempt to seem less intimidating to the small toddler.

"Are you hungry?" she asked.

Louella nodded, glancing over her shoulder to the bathroom her father had disappeared in. She hoped dearly that he would be back soon.

Mary-Jo decided it wouldn't be a good idea to try to take Louella to the kitchen. The girl was far too scared to leave the save proximity of her parent.

"How about I go make some food soon and you play until then?"

She didn't get an answer, but rather an action. Louella disappeared in her room, silently agreeing with the suggestion.

The nanny changed her clothes and brushed her teeth and hair. In the middle of the hall she bumped into James who was just emerging from his bedroom fully dressed and shaved.

"I- I was just going to make some breakfast. Louella said she was hungry." Mary-Jo said blushing.

"I can show you round in the kitchen."

"That would be nice. Thank you."

Louella stared at the two adults that were walking down the stairs from her bedroom. She didn't like this one bit.

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"Should we go out soon?" Mary-Jo asked after breakfast.

James looked out the window at the leaves swirling around in the air. It didn't look as if it was going to rain, but it wasn't exactly sunny either.

"It's pretty windy outside."

"Oh, really?" she moved to the window too to look outside, "Looks like a perfect weather to fly kites."

"Kites?" he replied surprised, not having thought of that at all.

"Yes. We can easily make a kite if you guys don't have one. It's a rather easy DIY project."

"Sounds great. What do we need to make a kite?"

Louella nudged her father's hand, "Daddy we play wif Henwy?".

"Who's Henry?" Mary-Jo asked.

"A friend of hers." James turned to Louella, "We can call him and ask if he wants to come fly kites. Does that sound like fun?"

"Uh-huh." She smiled and went back to her toys.

"So what do we need to make those kites then?"

"A few branches or sticks, a plastic bag and some string. Oh, and scissors and tape of course. You have all of that?"

"We'll have to get the branches, but everything else should be here."

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_

"Ugh! Henry would you please sit still, sweetheart." Sarah groaned, trying to still the little baby in the carrier, "I'm sorry, but could I have a pillow. It's much more comfortable to sit."

"Of course." James handed her a cushion from the couch while Mary-Jo gathered all items needed for the kites onto the table.

Henry and Louella eagerly taped the kite shaped pieces of plastic bag onto the branches that where tied into a cross. They managed to also put strips of tape onto the table and each other's faces. Mary-Jo assembled tails for the kites, which were then attached to the main structure. Once they had attached the strings all six of them went out to the park.

Sarah stood under a tree with Abigail, watching Louella, Henry, James and Mary-Jo at the other end of an open patch of grass. Mary-Jo seemed to be a fine nanny to her. Sometimes she wished she had one too. Taking care of a toddler and a newborn baby was quite overwhelming at times and before long she'd have to work again.

"Go! Keep running!" James and Mary-Jo let go of the kites after running a small distance.

Both toddlers ran as fast as their little legs could carry them to keep the kites flying. Louella made it half way across the field before her kite tumbled onto the ground. Henry ran a bit farther, but the minute he slowed down a bit and turned to look for his friend the kite hit him in the head. The adults were sure he would start to cry any minute, but before he got the chance Louella who was tumbling over the grass fell over, looking so surprised that he forgot he was hurt.

"Are you two all right?" Mary-Jo asked the both of them. She had jogged over and was now checking if Henry had gotten a cut or bump from the kite.

"Again!" Loulla squealed, eager to fly the kite again. Mary-Jo checked Louella's hands too, but they merely had some grass stains.

"Ready for round two?" she smirked, "Allright then. Let's go fly a kite."


	17. Chapter 17

_**A/N: **I write a bit too fast, but I can't help the idea overflow. Studying is really the best cure for lack of imagination. If I only think about the things that have come to mind in the past week! Though the only reason I get this written down is partial procrastination._

_Sunday - Funny how your review came in just when I had the new chapter posted... Timing was never my strong point. I haven't seen QoS, but I've heard of Felix Leiter's Character. I just never knew his last name. Well, I learn something new everyday :)_

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_**Chapter Seventeen – Desolate**_

"I'll be back in two hours." James hugged his daughter tightly. She didn't fully understand that he was leaving, but she was sensing something bad was about to happen. He opened the door and stepped outside. James winked one last time before he closed the door and walked off.

"Daddy no!" Louella ran to the door, pounding her little fists on it, "Daddy! No! No go!". She started sobbing and turned her head to look at Mary-Jo through her watery eyes.

"It's allright. He's coming back don't worry." The nanny crouched down next to her, reaching out to touch her, but Louella turned back to the door with a look of agony in her eyes.

She leaned her head against the large wooden door, sighing in defeat, "Daddy whewe you go?" After ten minutes she had grown tired from crying and panicking and so she sunk to the floor. Mary-Jo picked her up and carried her to the couch. Louella curled up into a little ball, continuing to sob quietly.

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He was back at work. Eight weeks seemed like an eternity now. James looked at the stack of papers in front of him. It was only an hour. He'd have to come back slowly and the only thing he could do in an hour was paper work.

_A desk job. _He nearly scoffed at the thought. He hated working at a desk. It was so dull and ineffective. But he would do anything for Louella and that meant he'd have to work at a desk for a few more weeks.

James thought of her. The sad look on her face and the panic creeping in when he started closing the door. It had all gone very fast, but his mind played it on a non-stop slow motion loop. The image was soon accompanied by her desperate scream muffled only by the door. He had had to keep moving and just drive off or he would have given in and went back. James wondered if she was still crying.

"Nice to see you back." Eve had appeared in front of him, "And you're even working at a desk. That's very alarming. It's not permanent tough, is it?"

"No, it's just for a few weeks."

"Are you allright? You look distracted."

"Yeah, I was just wondering if I remembered to lock my car."

She let out a small laugh, "Well, I don't think anybody will steal it from the car park even if you'd forget to lock it.". Eve handed him a form before she left, scurrying off towards the elevators.

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As noon came along Louella could hear her stomach rumble. She still felt betrayed and sad, but the feeling pushing past everything else was hunger. She sniffled a few times before sliding off the couch.

"Mawyo." She paddled into the kitchen, "Me hungwy."

Without a word Mary-Jo lifted her into the highchair and served a plate of potatomash, fishsticks and cooked carrots. Louella didn't play with the food or make even the slightest mess, but ate slowly, quietly and neatly.

Louella didn't want to play after lunch. She merely sat there on the carpet with a toy in her hand looking lost. She wasn't at all aware of time at her young age and so she didn't know that more then half of her lonely time was over already. Louella was so oblivious to the flow of time that she would feel exactly the same amount of misery no matter if her father had left a minute ago or was to come back in one.

"It's only half an hour more." Mary-Jo tried to console her, "See when the hand moves from down here to up there your Dad's going to come back.". The nanny moved her finger across the glass of her alarm clock. It wasn't one of those newer digital clocks. No, it was a regular old clock with hands pointing the time.

Louella took the object in her hands and looked at the red thin stick moving forcefully forward with a ticking sound every second. She willed the long hand to move in the direction Mary-Jo had shown. After a few seconds the red stick reached the top, making the long hand twitch forward.

"Oooh." she was mesmerized by the clock. Louella tried to will it to move further, but she couldn't understand that it wasn't her who had made time go by. The rhythmical ticking of the clock and the slowly moving red stick and occasionally twitching hand consumed her completely.

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James realized he'd never been this glad to see his car in the parking lot. All he wanted was to go home. The lights of his Aston Martin flickered once as the doors unlocked. He slid inside, sinking into the comfortable leather seat. He had never before longed to go home so bad.

The domesticated looking streets close to their neighborhood kept confusing him. He had lived in the heart of the city for two decades. Skyfall was different too. There weren't neighbors all around and now there wasn't even a house anymore, only the ruins of an exploded estate.

There was something scary and comforting about the suburbs. It was good to have people and a bit of nature around. It made everyday life more interesting, but all those horror stories always started in the suburbs. The streets were a bit freaky at night, at least if one was to get lost.

As soon as Louella heard the car turn off outside she ran to the window. Her pupils dilated to wide circles when she saw her father climb out of the driver's seat. He was back. She started moving to the hallway as fast as she could. The minute he walked through the door he could see her running.

"Daddy!" her first reaction was one of pure joy as she threw herself at him. He picked her up and bounced her up and down for a few moments. "Did you miss me?" James asked, "Or did you even notice I was gone?"

"Me miss you." She said sheepishly, a small sob escaping her. Louella buried her face in the crook of his neck. He managed to get out of his shoes and get to the living room.

"How was work?" Mary-Jo asked from the kitchen where she was doing the dishes.

"Paperwork, quite boring really. Was everything alright here?"

"Louella cried for about an hour, but it should get easier with time."

James nodded, stroking the girls blond curls. He hated to see her hurt in any way. She clung onto him for a while until she was too tired to stay awake. He put her to bed and then finally managed to get out of his coat.

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"Daddy!" Louella's agonized cry filled the entire house and made James jump right off the couch. Within ten seconds he was up the stairs and in her bedroom. She had tear filled eyes as she climbed out of her bed, looking really confused.

"What's wrong?"

"You hewe." She made sure by stumbling towards him and touching his leg.

"Of course I'm here." He assured her, "I have to go work because it's what adults do. But I'll always come back home.". Immediately he realized that that might not be true. His job was dangerous. He could get killed at any given moment. James brushed away the tears from her cheeks with his thumbs.

"Now, young lady, I believe I saw a letter downstairs for you."

"Lettew?"

"Yes. Want to go see it?"

"Uh-huh!"

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**_A/N:_**_ Hmm... Mystery Letter. I can only tell you that it has something to do with the next chapter ;) Also I was wondering if I should do a sort of 50% Bill&Eve chapter sometime soon?_


	18. Chapter 18

_****__A/N: __I'd like to say thanks for the reviews on the last chapter. Here's the new one. This wasn't even supposed to be, but if I'd have fused a part of this and the next one together I think it would've been too long. Don't worry though, the meaning of the letter will be revealed in this chapter __nonetheless and it'll give you a nice clue on what the next chapter is all about. Also a great thanks for everybody who's read this story. It hit 4'000 views just today :D Oh, and I'm sorry that the chapter is made up of so much dialogue. Don't know if it bothers anyone, hope not._

_RebaForever15 - Aww, you stahp! You're making me blush! And another thanks to you for updating your story._

_JFJD - Bill Tanner, M's chief of staff. Thanks for reviewing and I'm glad you liked the last chapter. I was a bit worried how well I could pull it off._

_m-is-for-Molly-and-Mansfield - No problem, main thing's that you updated :) I think I'll slip some Bill&Eve in in chapter 20, maybe._

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_**Chapter Eighteen – Tinkerbell**_

_His Royal Highness, _

_King Henry Gibbson the Great, _

_requests your presence at a royal celebration _

_in honor of the third year of his reign _

_November 30__th__ at one o'clock at his new castle _

_49 Nightingale Road, Islington, London _

_Regrets only to Sarah 07835-689-371_

_Please come dressed as one of the following:_

_Princess, Prince, Knight, Fairy_

_Parents are most welcomed._

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"Here you are!" Eve strolled into Q division stalking towards James, "I've been looking all over for you. Mallory has requested to see you at two o'clock this afternoon."

"Mallory? What does he want?"

"Don't ask me. I'm just a messenger." She shrugged her shoulders.

"Eve, hi. Do you need something?" Q had come over from a different section with a gadget in his hands. He nervously pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose.

"No, not really. Well, actually would either one or both of you like to go somewhere for lunch?"

"You aren't going with Tanner?" The quartermaster asked.

"No. He's caught up in a meeting."

"I can go, but I have a little errand to run on my lunch break."

"No problem. Are you coming too Q?"

"Well why not. What time are we going?"

"Is 12:30 allright?"

"Yes." Both men said simultaneously.

"Great. Meet you out front then." Eve smiled and walked off, leaving Q to show Bond his newest invention.

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James stood out on the streets five minutes early. Q arrived there on the minute and Eve was in typical fashion a little late.

"So, where exactly are we going?" Eve asked James who had whipped out his phone to get directions for their destination. Meanwhile Q hailed a cab for the three of them.

"45 Chalkfarm Road." He said to the driver, "It's a costume store."

"Wasn't Halloween last month?" Q asked sarcastically.

"Very funny Q." James rolled his eyes in a manner that made Eve chuckle.

Twenty minutes later they arrived in front of the shop. James handed the driver some cash and they all got out of the cab. He took out his phone and proceeded to call Mary-Jo.

"Okay, what am I looking for?" he asked, eyeing the racks and shelves inside the store.

"There are quite a few blonde princesses and fairies. There's Cinderella, Aurora, Tinkerbell and any given Barbie. Can you remember those?"

"Yeah, sure." He hung up and put the phone back in his pocket.

"What are we looking for?" Eve asked.

"A Cindella, Aurora, Tinkerbell or some sort of Barbie costume." James said looking around a bit helplessly.

"I think Cinderella's over here." Q said pulling a light green princess dress from the rack.

"I don't know who this Aurora is supposed to be, but I think Tinkerbell could be over there" Eve pointed towards a section with a lot of green costumes of fairies and mythical creatures, "and Barbie should be over there in that sea of pink gowns."

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James was on his way home in the afternoon, well before the commuter traffic. He was glad he didn't have a normal job in a cubicle somewhere in the city. Sitting in the car every morning and night in an ocean of cars wasn't all too appealing. He pulled into his driveway, just another one in the road filled with similar houses and driveways.

"Hi." He found Mary-Jo in the living room, huddled up on the couch reading with a cup of tea on the coffee table, "Louella's still napping."

"Yeah, I thought so."

"Which costume did you get?" she asked, pointing to the shopping bag in James's hand.

"It's a Tinkerbell costume. I just hope Louella likes it."

"I'm sure she will. We met some new kids in the park today. Louella's pretty shy with new people, but there were these two girls whom she just started playing with."

"I don't know how she picks out people, but sometimes she just trust someone blindly."

"MAWYO!" Louella's loud call echoed down the stairs accompanied by a rattle of the security gate at the top of them.

"I'll get her." James immediately said.

"Daddy!" the girl's face lit up the second she saw him.

"I'm back from work. No need to get all wound up, is there?" He was surprised by how light she was every single time he lifted her up. It was just so easy. "I heard you met some new friends today."

"Uh-huh. Mawyo an me go in dem pawk and thewe nice giwls an we play."

"Oh really? Did you have fun?"

"Yeah, me slide don dem slide weally many dimes. Dem go so fast!"

"Remember Henry's birthday party next week?"

"Biwdday, uh-huh." She nodded her head vigorously.

"I got you a dress for it. D'you want to see it?"

"Yeah!" the moment her feet touched the floor Louella was already running to the living room.

"Mawyo!" She screamed climbing onto the sofa and crawling on top of the nanny's legs, "Daddy buyed me dwess fow Henwy's biwdday!"

"I heard. I bet it's cool."

James pulled out the light green semi-puffy little dress with the bottom part made of leaf shaped pieces and a matching set of wings and shoes for it.

"Dem pwetty!" she exclaimed in awe, "Can me twy dat on daddy? Pwease." She did her best pleading impression. Mary-Jo snickered at the scene unfolding right in front of her.

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"Weady?" Louella called from behind the corner.

"Yes."

"Ta-da!" she jumped out and ran around the living room dressed as a fairy.

"You look really pretty, just like a real fairy." Mary-Jo said.

"Weally?" Louella stopped in front of the couch to be picked up by the woman.

"Yup, just like a fairy. But since it's time for your snack now you have to get changed. Fairy's never eat in their dresses because they are very, very hard to clean if they get dirty."

"Okay. Daddy can you help me?" James liked the way Louella understood that she was small and needed a lot of help. It made things a lot easier.

"Of course." She wobbled herself of the couch and scurried across the room to him. James delicately took of f the light yellow wings with light green glitter swirls and handed them to Louella, who held them in her hands as if the were one of the greatest treasures on earth.

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**_A/N 2: _**_As you could probably make out already next chapters gonna be Henry's birthday party. Please leave a review on your way out :)_


	19. Chapter 19

_**A/N:** Okay, let me just start by saying I am sorry. I'm sorry this took so long, I'm sorry it's not too good and I'm sorry that it'll take a while for a new chap to be up. I had other intentions (much happier ones) for this chapter originally, but something was wrong with it, since it refused to be written, which lead it to turn out like this. I really didn't want to make you wait a month, just 29 days. Now to why you will have to wait for a new update for a long time. Two reasons. 1: I'm trying to participate in the NaNoWriMo, which is bound to take up all my time on top of school, exam week, my best friends birthday and a two weekends away in another city. In other words: busy improving my writing skills and living. 2: This fic is now officially moving to December, which makes the next few chapters Christmasy. No problem for me, since snow is about to arrive here soon, but problematic as many may not be __feeling it (yet), including me. So you'll get some Christmas fluff next. And one more sorry for the extremely long Author's Note._

RebaForever15 - I am in love with her too, which is important of course because she's my character.  


_BelieverofManyThings - Thank you very much. I'm glad you took a chance and started to read and I feel especially terrible for not updating because I kept thinking how frustrated you must get. At least that usually happens to me whenever I find a new fic and have to wait an eternity for an update. Very, very sorry.__  
_

ILFlynn - Thank you a lot :)

#####

_**Chapter Nineteen – Comfort**_

_**#####**_

"Now look at you." James said stepping back a bit to look at Louella. He'd done his best to fix her hair into a bun, which was a lot harder than it looked like at first. Her dress shimmered in the sunlight shining through the windows.

"Me look like faiwy?" she asked, jumping around.

"You'd fool anyone anyday. Now let's go." He crouched down to whisper in her ear, "Fairies aren't late. It's not fashionable, no matter what the trolls say."

James helped Louella into her jacket. It fit perfectly, the elastic band at the bottom pulling the puffy bottom of the dress together under it.

"Okay Tinkerbell, time to get comfortable in your carriage." He swung her into the stroller and locked the door behind him.

#####

"Happy Biwday Henwy!" Louella screamed to the first person opening the door, "You not Henwy.". She looked at the older women quizzically, having no idea who she was.

"No I'm not. I'm his grandmother."

"Gwanmothew?" the little girl looked even more confused.

"Henry's dad's mum." The explanation didn't help Louella too much, but James figured out immediately who she was. He began to usher his daughter in, wanting to get to the actual party.

"I'm James and this is Louella. It's a pleasure to meet you."

The whole living room was filled with kids and parents, some running in the corridors too. Q was slouched down on a chair in one corner of the room. James let Louella get acquainted with the other kids, heading to Q himself since he wasn't particularily keen on getting sucked into the circle of mums with their babies.

"Q." he greeted the man, wishing desperately that there would be a bar with alcoholic beverages to take his mind of all the people in the room.

"Bond." The man answered equally stoic and looking just as miserable.

#####

"Daddy, daddy." Louella tugged at James' jeans, "I wanna go out! Dem puppy outside!"

"Puppy? What are you talking about?"

"There's a puppy there." Q quipped, "Someone's dog wasn't old enough to be left alone and so it's in the backyard now. I think."

James was dragged out to see a small labrador rolling around excitedly in a group of even more excited kids. Louella was on her knees in no time, mesmerized by the dog. He sat down on the garden furniture, watching one of the mums in the corner of the garden, smoking and looking absolutely exhausted.

As he sat there in the yard surrounded by yelling and twilight he suddenly wished he'd asked Mary-Jo to come with them. She was so sweet that she would've come for the girl's sake, but he had told her they'd be fine and she should go spend the night with her girlfriends in a bar. Now he wanted to be in the bar and her to be here.

James was pulled right back to reality when he heard a loud thud and whipering, that turned into full blown crying in just a few seconds. One child had hit another one right in the back of the head with a children's sized metal shovel.

"Oh my god, Sonny! What the hell!" The woman by the bushes dropped her cigarette and pulled the boy with the shovel away, "I have told you not to hit people!"

Other parents started to come to the backyard to see what's going on, including the bleeding boy's hysteric mother. All of the other kids were getting hysterical aswell, some girls bursting out crying from all the noise, seeking their parents comfort. James had pulled Louella and Henry aside already, knowing his parents would be busy sorting out the mess. He took them inside, heading for the quietest room in the house: the nursery.

All three sat down on the carpet in the middle of the room, remaining silent since fear was still present in both toddlers' eyes. James put out both his hand, each getting grasped by one of the two kids. All they could to is wait for the worst to be over.

#####

Thirty minutes later most people had dissapeared, taking their precious offspring to the safe proximity of their own home. The injured child had been taken to the emergency room and the only people left in the house were James, Louella, Henry, Abigail, Sarah and her husband, mother-in-law, Henry's godmother and Q.

"You should really be more careful about what you leave out in the yard with so many children present." The old woman scolded Sarah, "That child is a bad influence on Henry and I will not have my grandson growing up to be violent."

"I can't control other people's kids, especially not when their own mother is right next to them."

"That frail, neurotic little thing? She shouldn't be trusted with a child in the first place."

James could see the frustration build in Sarah and he could understand why. Michael's mother was on a witchhunt. She could temporarily escape the comments due to her now crying daughter, whom she went to console.

"Well here's your cake big boy." Michael came out carrying a large cake, intended to feed all the guests. Henry leaned over the table in anticipation, proceeding to blow out the three candles arranged in a triangle around a large one, shaped to the form of the number.

James excused himself from the table a short while later, leaving Louella to smear cake on Henry's face and vice versa. He stalked down the hall, knocking softly on the door of the nursery, cracking it open quietly.

Sarah was rocking back and forth in the rocking chair, trying to console and put to sleep the little baby in her arms while she had tears running down her own face.

"Hey. It's me."He came in and whispered, shutting the door, "Are you okay?"

"How can I be when it's always like this?" She asked, her voice hoarse and hitched.

"You shouldn't care about her. It wasn't your fault that kid went bonkers and the mental state of his mother is certainly none of her business."

"I know." Sarah sniffled a bit, wiping her cheeks with her sleeves, "It's just that I do my best to please her and be civil and all I get in return is this. Michael doesn't even stand up for me. It feels like he's silently agreeing with her."

"Well, she's going to be gone in a few hours and you'll have an entire cake for yourself."

She chuckled at his attempt to cheer her up, "I am being ridiculous, aren't I?"

"Ridiculous for feeling the way you do? No. Ridiculous for letting her win? Yeah."

Sarah lay Abigail down in the crib, wiping her eyes and cheeks properly free from the tears.

"Do I look puffy?"

"A bit, but it's nothing a bit of cold water can't fix." He gave her a small smile, heading for the door.

"James." she said shyly, all of a sudden self conscious and ashamed.

"Yeah?" he turned to look at her.

"Thank you."

#####

_**A/N 2:** Thank you for reading and please leave a review. They are highly __appreciated 3_


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